Wanderers Part 55

It occurred to me that this evening would be a good time to send the lad up to the clearing for my was.h.i.+ng: Lars was away, and no one could take offence at that was.h.i.+ng business now.

Oh yes, I said to myself, you're very careful to do what's right and proper, sending the lad up to fetch that was.h.i.+ng. But you'll find it isn't that at all. Right and proper, indeed; you're getting old, that's what it is.

I bore with this reproach for an hour. Then--well, it was all nonsense, like as not, and here was a lovely evening, and Sunday into the bargain, nothing to do, no one to talk to down here.... Getting old, was I?

Afraid of the walk uphill?

And I went up myself.

Early next morning Lars Falkenberg came over again. He drew me aside, as he had done once before, and with the same intent: I had been up to the clearing yesterday, it seemed; it was to be the last time, and would I please to make no mistake about that!

"It was the last of my was.h.i.+ng, anyhow," I said.

"Oh, you and your was.h.i.+ng! As if I couldn't have brought along your miserable s.h.i.+rt a hundred times since you've been here!"

Now, by what sort of magic had he got to know of my little walk up there already? Ragnhild, of course, at her old tricks again--it could be no one else. There was no doing anything with that girl.

But now, as it happened, Nils was at hand this time, as he had been the time before. He came strolling over innocently from the kitchen, and in a moment Lars's anger was turned upon him instead.

"Here's the other scarecrow coming up, too," says Lars, "and he's a long sight worse than you."

"What's that you say?" said Nils.

"What's that you say!" retorted Lars. "You go home and rinse your mouth with a mixture or something, and see if you can talk plain," said he.

Nils stopped short at this, and came up to see what it was all about.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said he.

"No, of course not. You don't know anything that's any sense. But you know all about ploughing in standing crops, don't you? There's not many can beat you at that."

But here Nils grew angry for once, and his cheeks paled.

"What an utter fool you are, Lars! Can't you keep your mouth shut with that nonsense?"

"Fool, eh? Hark at the silly goat!" said Lars, turning to me. "Thinks himself mighty fine, doesn't he? 'Utter'" he says--and goes white about it. "I've been more years than you at vreb, and asked in to sing up at the house of an evening more than once, let me tell you. But things have changed since then, and what have we got instead? You remember," he said, turning to me, "what it was like in the old days. It was Lars here and Lars there, and I never heard but the work got done all right. And after me it was Albert, that was here for eighteen months. But then you, Nils, came along, and now it's toil and moil and ploughing and carting manure day and night, till a man's worn to a thread with it all."

Nils and I could not help laughing at this. And Lars was in no way offended; he seemed quite pleased at having said something funny, and, forgetting his ill-will, joined in the laugh himself.

"Yes, I say it straight out," said he. "And if it wasn't for you being a friendly sort between whiles--no, friendly I won't say, but someways decent and to get on with after a fas.h.i.+on ... if it wasn't for that...."

"Well, what then?"

Lars was getting more and more good humoured. "Oh," he said, with a laugh, "I could just pick you up and stuff you down in your own long boots."

"Like to feel my arm?" said Nils.

"What's going on here?" asked the Captain, coming up. It was only six o'clock, but he was out and about already.

"Nothing," said Lars and Nils as well.

"How's the reservoir getting on?" asked the Captain. This was to me, but before I could answer he turned to Nils. "I shall want the boy to drive me to the station," he said. "I'm going to Christiania."

Grindhusen and I went off to our work on the reservoir, and Lars to his digging. But a shadow seemed to have fallen over us all.

Grindhusen himself said openly: "Pity the Captain's going away."

I thought so, too. But he was obliged to go in on business, no doubt.

There were the crops as well as the timber to be sold. But why should he start at that hour of the day? He couldn't catch the early train in any case. Had there been trouble again? Was he anxious to be out of the way before Fruen got up?

Trouble there was, often enough.

It had gone so far by this time that the Captain and Fruen hardly spoke to one another, and whenever they did exchange a word it was in a careless tone, and looking all the other way. Now and again the Captain would look his wife properly in the face, and say she ought to be out more in the lovely air; and once when she was outside he asked if she wouldn't come in and play a little. But this, perhaps, was only to keep up appearances, no more.

It was pitiful to see.

Fruen was quiet and nice. Now and again she would stand outside on the steps looking out towards the hills; so soft her features were, and her reddish yellow hair. But it was dull for her now--no visitors, no music and entertaining, nothing but sorrow and shame.

The Captain had promised to bear with things as they were, and surely he was bearing all he could. But he could do no more. Disaster had come to the home, and the best will in the world could not shoulder it off. If Fruen happened to be hasty, as she might now and then, and forgot to be grateful, the Captain would look down at the floor, and it would not be long before he put on his hat and went out. All the maids knew about it, and I had seen it myself once or twice. He never forgot what she had done--how could he?--though he could keep from speaking of it. But could he keep from speaking of it when she forgot herself and said:

"You know I'm not well just now; you know I can't walk far like I used to!"

"S--sh, Lovise!" he would say, with a frown. And then the mischief was there as bad as ever.

"Oh, of course you must bring that up again!"

"No, indeed! It's you that brought it up yourself. You've lost all sense of modesty, I think; you seem to have no shame left."

"Oh, I wish I'd never come back at all! I was better off at home!"

"Yes, or living with that puppy, I dare say."

"You said he'd helped you once yourself. And I often wish I were back there with him again. Hugo's a great deal better than you are."

She was all irresponsible in her words, going, perhaps, further than she meant. But she was changed out of knowledge to us all, and spoiled and shameless now. Fru Falkenberg shameless! Nay, perhaps not; who could say? Yet she was not ashamed to come out in the kitchen of an evening and say nice things to Nils about how young and strong he was. I was jealous again, no doubt, and envied Nils for his youth, for I thought to myself: Is every one gone mad? Surely we older ones are far to be preferred! Was it his innocence that attracted her? Or was she merely trying to keep up her spirits a little--trying to be younger than she was? But then one day she came up to the reservoir where Grindhusen and I were at work, and sat watching us for a while. It was easy work then for half an hour; the granite turned pliable, and yielded to our will; we built away like giants. Oh, but Fruen sat there irresponsible as ever, letting her eyes play this way and that. Why could she not rid herself of this new habit of hers? Her eyes were too earnest for such playing; it did not suit her. I thought to myself, either she was trying to make up for her foolishness towards Nils by favouring us in turn, or starting a new game altogether--which would it be? I could not make it out, and as for Grindhusen, he saw nothing in it at all, but only said, when Fruen had gone: "Eh, she's a strange, kind-hearted soul, is Fruen.

Almost like a mother. Only fancy going and feeling if the water wasn't too cold for us!"

One day, when I was standing by the kitchen entrance, she said:

"Do you remember the old days here--when you first came?"

She had never once spoken of this till now, and I did not know what to say. I stammered out: Yes, I remembered.

"You drove me down to the Vicarage once," she said.

Then I half fancied that perhaps she was not disinclined to talk to me and occupy her mind a little; I felt I must help her, make it easier for her. And perhaps I was a little touched myself at the thought.