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Now Stolpe came back; he was ready! Pelle had only to button his collar for him. He took Lasse's hand and then went to fetch The Working Man. "Now you just ought to hear this, what they say of your son," he said, and began to read: "Our young party-member, Pelle, to-day celebrates his nuptials with the daughter of one of the oldest and most respected members of the party, Mason Stolpe.
The buying of new furniture was discontinued; in its place Ellen made curious purchases of linen and flannel and material for swaddling-bands, and mysterious conversations were continually taking place between her and her mother, from which Pelle was excluded; and when they went to see Ellen's parents Madam Stolpe was always burrowing in her chests of drawers, and giving Ellen little packages to be taken home.
"A ready hand for spending, and they've got a witty word ready for everything." Before any one noticed it had grown dark, and now they must be home! At home the table was laid, and the rest of the guests had come. Madam Stolpe was already quite nervous, they had stopped away so long. "Now we'll all wobble a bit on our legs," whispered Stolpe, in the entry; "then my wife will go for us!
Stolpe sprang to his feet; he was as white as chalk. "You think what you are doing!" he cried threateningly. "I've had time enough to think. They are starving, I tell you and there's got to be an end of it. I only wanted to tell you beforehand so that you shouldn't hear it from others after all, you're my brother." "Your brother I'm your brother no longer!
'I was so accursedly thirsty, was all he said; 'I couldn't wait to run down the stairs!" The general laughter appeased the Vanishing Man. "Who'll give me a glass of beer?" he said, rising with difficulty. He got his beer and sat down in a corner. Stolpe was sitting at the table playing with his canary, which had to partake of its share in the feast.
"That was a fine speech that mother made about me," said Stolpe, laughing, "and she didn't hiccough. It is astonishing, though there are some people who can't. But now it's your turn, Frederik. Now you have become a journeyman and must accept the responsibility yourself for doing things according to plumb-line and square. We have worked on the scaffold together and we know one another pretty well.
"Well, it isn't difficult to see what she's been about!" said Stolpe teasingly. "One has only to look at the lass's peepers such a pair of glowing coals!" Otto Stolpe, the slater, was spokesman, and opened the banquet by offering brandy. "A drop of spirits," he said to each: "we must make sure there's a vent to the gutter, or the whole thing will soon get stopped up."
The younger, Frederik, who was a mason's apprentice, never said "thou" to his father; he addressed him in the third person, and his continual "father says, father thinks," sounded curious to Pelle's ears. While they were still talking Madam Stolpe opened the door leading into an even prettier room, and invited them to go in and to drink their coffee.
"I am really looking for my own basket of food," said Pelle, lying down beside them. "Now look here, you are the deuce of a fellow," said Stolpe, suddenly laughing. It wasn't very wise of you, really but that's all one to me. But what you have done to-day no one else could do. The whole thing went like a dance! Not a sign of wobbling in the ranks!
You do this and we've done with one another!" roared Stolpe, striking the table. "But you won't do it, you shan't do it! God damn me, I couldn't live through the shame of seeing the comrades condemning my own brother in the open street! And I shall be with them! I shall be the first to give you a kick, if you are my brother!" He was quite beside himself.
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