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Now this was the first I had heard with exactness of the matter of old Hanne's having been a witch. And now that I knew it for certain I began to imagine all sorts of unholy things about the poor wretch, and grew greatly jealous of Helene being so often in the kitchen.
She looked irresolutely at Pelle. For a moment Pelle felt an inordinate longing to throw himself upon this man and strike him to the ground, but then he met Hanne's eyes, which wore an expression as though she was longing for some means of shaking him off. "Well, it looks as if one was in the way here!" he thought. "And what does it all matter to me?"
However, one could have too much of a good thing.... But the round grating under the timbers yonder, where Hanne's father drowned himself, was a thing one never grew weary of. The depths were forever bubbling upward, filling the little children with a secret horror; and the half- grown girls would stand a-straddle over the grating, shuddering at the cold breath that came murmuring up from below.
He stood still in the tunnel-like entry; Hanne herself stood in the midst of a circle, and the children were dancing round her and singing: "I looked from the lofty mountain Down over vale and lea, And I saw a ship come sailing, Sailing, sailing, I saw a ship come sailing, And on it were lordlings three." On Hanne's countenance lay a blind, fixed smile; her eyes were tightly closed.
The terrible winter is put to flight, and it is warm as in Hell itself. The blood is seething in their brains; it injects the whites of their eyes, and expresses itself in wanton frolic, in a need to dance till they drop, or to fight. "Hanne is wild to-night she has got her second youth," says Elvira and the other girls maliciously. Hold your tongues. No one shall criticize Hanne's behavior!
However, one could have too much of a good thing.... But the round grating under the timbers yonder, where Hanne's father drowned himself, was a thing one never grew weary of. The depths were forever bubbling upward, filling the little children with a secret horror; and the half- grown girls would stand a-straddle over the grating, shuddering at the cold breath that came murmuring up from below.
On the stairs of the "Ark" the children lay about cleaning knives and forks with sand sprinkled on the steps. Pelle sat over his work and listened in secret. His appearance usually had a quieting effect on these crazy outbursts of the "Ark," but he did not want to mix himself up with this affair. And he had never even dreamed that Hanne's mother could be like this!
"The prefect of police himself has just five hundred kroner lying in his desk. I'll try to get it for you if you like." "No," said Pelle slowly, "I would rather undergo my punishment. But thanks for your kind intentions and give my best wishes to your old mother. And if you ever have anything to spare, then give it to Widow Johnsen. She and the child have gone hungry since Hanne's death."
"Get me another coat, then see that I don't do anything or wear anything unusual. I have been so long out of Europe, that I don't know the customs here, and am not above learning." Kean retires, vowing that his master is an old trump; which opinion he had already expressed to Mr. Kuhn, Lady Hanne's man, over a long potation which those two gentlemen had taken together.
And there a bluish ring of vapor always hovered, revealing the presence of the well, that hidden ventilating shaft for the thronging inmates of the "Ark." One could recognize Madam Frandsen's garret with its chimney-cowl, and farther back, in a deep recess, which ran far into the mass of the building, Pelle could distinguish Hanne's window. Otherwise he could not place many of the little windows.
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