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Updated: June 20, 2025
You have never seen anything like it; the town is shrouded in dust and smoke." At any other time Ole would have said no; it was neither healthy nor enjoyable to be blown full of dust. But now he wanted to show Aagot that he was not thinking of their recent conversation.... Certainly; run along! Really, she ought to take this walk. And Aagot went. "It is an age since I have seen you," said Irgens.
Irgens spoke entertainingly about the far, blue, pine-clad ridges, about a tethered horse, a workingman who was making a fence. Aagot was grateful; she knew he did this in order to maintain his self-control; she appreciated it. He even said with a shy smile that if she would not think him affected he would like to jot down a couple of stanzas which just now occurred to him.
"My fiancee, Miss Lynum." Irgens got up and bowed deeply. Once more he looked at Aagot, looked persistently, even, and she looked back at him; she was evidently surprised to find the poet different from what she had thought. It was over two years since she had read his book, the lyric drama which had brought him so much fame. She had thought the master to be an elderly man.
Gradually, very gradually, she came to earth; her heart began to flutter wildly. "It seems as if the news does not make you so very happy, Irgens," she said. "Happy? Of course I am. Why shouldn't I be happy? You have sighed for this for a long time; why shouldn't I rejoice with you now? I do, most assuredly." Words only, without fire, without warmth even! What could have happened?
She had once given him a cane so that he might look well on the street.... "No, Irgens, I had no such thought, not at all," she interrupted. All right, he might have been mistaken; if she said so, of course.... Nevertheless, he had the impression that such was her reason. He had thought that if he couldn't pass muster without a cane, then.... For even those two sheared sheep of Ojen's used a cane.
He began to speak; he had not quite heard the last, the very last of the discussion; how had the poets fared? Oh, there was Mrs. Hanka; so pleased to see her. But why had she arrived so late? He was finally led outside. "This means a general departure, I suppose?" asked Irgens, displeased. He had tried to approach Miss Lynum once during the evening but without success. She had plainly avoided him.
But Irgens noticed no more than ever that people admired him when he strolled down the promenade. Gracious! if they enjoyed looking at him, that was their affair. He was frigidly indifferent, as ever. "I must admit you are a foxy fellow!" exclaimed even Norem, the Actor, when he ran across him on the street.
And not later either; not to-morrow. No, I am through for good." She gave Irgens her hand and said good-bye quickly. All the time she looked at Coldevin and seemed impatient to be off. "Remember our engagement for to-morrow," Irgens said. Aagot and Coldevin walked together down the street. He said nothing about his going away, and she didn't know of his intention.
"No, not if I like," she said sadly. "You seem so indifferent, Irgens! Yes, I admit I should like to go to the opera, but Where are you going this evening? I am just like a compass-needle now: I oscillate, I may even swing all the way round, but I hark constantly back to one point I point continually in one direction. It is you I am thinking of always." Her little bewildered heart trembled.
The town was quiet; everything was quiet. Irgens was still capable of surprising people and attracting everybody's attention. He had looked a little careworn and depressed for some time; his debts bothered him; he earned no money and nobody gave him any. Fall and winter were coming; it did not look any too bright for him. He had even been obliged to make use of a couple of last year's suits.
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