United States or Curaçao ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Harald was away, the maids were wringing clothes, only Oline was busy in the kitchen. After dinner, I went upstairs, and started sawing in the passage. "Come and lend me a hand here, will you?" said Fruen, walking on in front of me. We passed by her husband's study and into the bedroom. "I want my bed moved," said Fruen. "It's too near the stove in winter, and I can't stand the heat."
So confused and shamed was I that I did not even ask pardon, but only fretted this way and that way seeing to buckles and straps. "You are driving then, Grindhusen?" called Fruen from the carriage. "Me? Yes, surely," he answered. Fruen pulled the door to with a bang, and the carriage drove off. "Has she gone?" asked the maids, clasping their hands. "Gone yes, of course.
Emma comes in: "Varsaagod; there's something ready for you in the kitchen." To my horror she had my rug over one arm. "And Fruen told me to ask if this wasn't your rug." "Mine? No; I've got mine here with my things." Emma goes off again with the rug. Well, how could I say it was mine? Devil take the rug!... Should I go down to the kitchen or not?
I sauntered home again, yawning and shivering a little in the cool night, and went up to my room. After a while Ragnhild came up, and begged me to keep awake and be ready to help in case of need. It was horrible, she said; they were carrying on like mad things up at the house, walking about from one room to another, half undressed and drunk as well. Was Fruen drunk, too? Yes, she was.
And where should I go if I did? The Captain arrived. He went all through the house at once into the parlour, out into the kitchen, then to the rooms upstairs in his fur coat and overboots. "Where's Fruen?" he asked. "Fruen went to meet Captain," answered Ragnhild. "We thought she'd be coming back now as well." The Captain's head bowed forward a little. Then cautiously he began questioning.
Fruen came out, and he had to sing it over again, and another one after; his fine voice filled the room, and Fruen was delighted, and said she had never heard anything like it. And then it was I began to be envious. "Have you learnt singing?" asked Fruen. "Can you read music at all?" "Yes, indeed," said Falkenberg. "I used to sing in a club."
"She's getting a little too friendly with the men out here." Silence. "So perhaps she'd better go," Fruen went on. It was incomparable audacity on Fruen's part, of course, to say such a thing to our face, but we could not protest; we saw she was only using us to serve her need. When we got outside, Nils said angrily: "I'm not sure but I'd better go back and say a word or two myself about that."
"I've no certificate, no. It's not my way to ask for such. But Fruen can come and hear me." "Well, perhaps yes, come this way." She went into the house, and he followed. I looked through the doorway as they went in, and saw a room with many pictures on the walls.
I thought of taking a room at the hotel, but the idea was distasteful to me; she was not a runaway wife meeting commercial travellers. When I came down, I remarked to the porter as I passed that Fruen seemed to be lying down. Then I went out and got into my cab again. The time passes, a whole hour; the cabman wants to know if I do not feel cold? Well, yes, a little. Was I waiting for some one?
"What was that about the Captain and my letter? Did he see it?" "Well, it began like this," said Falkenberg. "Fruen was in the kitchen when I came in with the post. 'What letter's that with all those stamps on? she says. I opened it, and said it was from you, to say you were coming on the 11th." "And what did she say?" "She didn't say any more.
Word Of The Day