United States or Egypt ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And there is no use starting a joint-stock company to exploit a new machine when there is a better machine in the field. The steel had seized on Peer, and used him as a springboard. But the reward was destined for another. Herr Uthoug Junior, Agent for English tweeds, stepped out of the train one warm day in July, and stood for a moment on the station platform looking about him.
"I wish I had been all over the world, like you," she said. "Have you never been abroad, Froken Uthoug?" he asked. "I spent a winter in Berlin, once, and a few months in South Germany. I played the violin a little, you see; and I hoped to take it up seriously abroad and make something of it but " "Well, why shouldn't you?"
Would he ever have a home of his own, he wondered. After the meal, a mandolin was brought out, and they sat round the fire in the great fireplace and had some music. Until at last Merle rose and said: "Now, mother, it's time you went to bed." "Yes, dear," came the answer submissively, and Fru Uthoug said good-night, and Merle led her off. Peer had risen to take leave, when Merle came in again.
A young man came driving up the hill, a florid-faced young man, with very blue eyes. He took off his overcoat in the passage, revealing a long black frock coat beneath and a large-patterned waistcoat. It was Uthoug junior, general agent for English tweeds. He had taken no part in his brother-in-law's business affairs, and so he was able to help his father in this crisis.
"You'll find salt and pepper and vinegar and oil on the table there, and that's all we possess in the way of condiments. But it must be a real Arabian salad all the same, if you please!" And out she went again, while Peer busied himself with the salad. "I hope you will excuse my daughter," said Fru Uthoug, turning her pale face towards him and looking through her spectacles.
How much did you say?" Uthoug began to move restlessly about the room. He clutched his hair, and gazed at Peer as if doubting whether he was quite sober. At the same time he felt it would never do to let himself be so easily thrown off his balance. He tried to pull himself together. "And what do you make out of it?" he asked. "A couple of hundred thousand, I hope." "Oh!"
Old Lorentz D. Uthoug rarely visited his rich sister at Bruseth, but to-day he had taken his weary way up there, and the two masterful old folks sat now facing each other. "So you've managed to find your way up here?" said Aunt Marit, throwing out her ample bosom and rubbing her knees like a man.
He was fast bound to it. When he looked up at the window, there seemed to be faces at each pane staring in. "What? Not finished yet?" they seemed to say. "Think what it means if you fail!" Merle's face, and the children's: "Must we be driven from Loreng, out into the cold?" The faces of old Uthoug and his wife: "Was it for this you came into an honourable family? To bring it to ruin?"
The old man's face was grey with want of sleep; his wife looked from one to the other through her spectacles. Peer was calm and smiling. At last, when the claret came round, Fru Uthoug lifted her glass and drank to Peer. "Good fortune!" she said. "We won't be the ones to stand in your way. Since you think it is all right, of course it is. And we all hope it will turn out well for you, Peer."
"Good heavens! how old he has grown!" thought Uthoug to himself. But aloud he said, "Well, you do look fit. I'd hardly have known you again." Merle caught sight of the pair from the kitchen window. "Why, I do believe " she exclaimed, and came running out.
Word Of The Day