Wanderers by Knut Hamsun

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Yes, that was the way of it.

And the Captain? Was he moved at all to see his wife flush at his words to
her maid? Maybe a shadow of memory from the old days, a tingle of wonder,
a gladness. But he said no word. Maybe he was grown prouder and more
obstinate with the years that had passed. It might well seem so from his
looks.

Then it was there came the happenings I spoke of.

III

Fru Falkenberg had been playing with her husband now for some little time.
She affected indifference to his indifference, and consoled herself with
the casual attentions of men staying in the house. Now one and now another
of them left, but stout Captain Bror and the lady with the shawl stayed
on, and Lassen, the young engineer, stayed too. Captain Falkenberg looked
on as if to say: "Well and good, stay on by all means, my dear fellow, as
long as you please." And it made no impression on him when his wife said
"Du" to Lassen and called him Hugo. "Hugo!" she would call, standing on
the steps, looking out. And the Captain would volunteer carelessly:
"Hugo's just gone down the road."

One day I heard him answer her with a bitter smile and a wave of his hand
towards the lilacs: "Little King Hugo is waiting for you in his kingdom."
I saw her start; then she laughed awkwardly to cover her confusion, and
went down in search of Lassen.

At last she had managed to wring some expression of feeling out of him.
She would try it again.

This was on a Sunday.

Later in the day Fruen was strangely restless; she said a few kindly words
to me, and mentioned that both Nils and I had managed our work very well.

"Lars has been to the post office today," she said, "to fetch a letter for
me. It's one I particularly want. Would you mind going up to his place and
bringing it down for me?"

I said I would with pleasure.

"Lars won't be home again till about eleven. So you need not start for a
long time yet."

Very good.

"And when you get back, just give the letter to Ragnhild."

It was the first time Fru Falkenberg had spoken to me during my present
stay at Ovrebo; it was something so new, I went up afterwards to my
bedroom and sat there by myself, feeling as if something had really
happened. I thought over one or two things a little as well. It was simply
foolishness, I told myself to go on playing the stranger here and
pretending nobody knew. And a full beard was a nuisance in the hot
weather; moreover, it was grey, and made me look ever so old. So I set to
and shaved it off.

About ten o'clock I started out towards the clearing. Lars was not back. I
stayed there a while with Emma, and presently he came in. I took the
letter and went straight home. It was close on midnight.

Ragnhild was nowhere to be seen, and the other maids had gone to bed. I
glanced in at the shrubbery. There sat Captain Falkenberg and Elisabet,
talking together at the round stone table; they took no notice of me.
There was a light in Fruen's bedroom upstairs. And suddenly it occurred to
me that to-night I looked as I had done six years before, clean-shaven as
then. I took the letter out of my pocket and went in the main entrance to
give it to Fruen myself.

At the top of the stairs Ragnhild comes slipping noiselessly towards me
and takes the letter. She is evidently excited. I can feel the heat of her
breath as she points along the passage. There is a sound of voices from
the far end.

It looked as if she had taken up her post here on guard, or had been set
there by some one to watch; however, it was no business of mine. And when
she whispered: "Don't say a word; go down again quietly!" I obeyed, and
went to my room.

My window was open. I could hear the couple down among the bushes: they
were drinking wine. And there was still light upstairs in Fruen's room.

Ten minutes passed; then the light went out.

A moment later I heard some one hurrying up the stairs in the house, and
looked down involuntarily to see if it was the Captain. But the Captain
was sitting as before.

Now came the same steps down the stairs again, and, a little after,
others. I kept watch on the main entrance. First comes Ragnhild, flying as
if for her life over towards the servants' quarters; then comes Fru
Falkenberg with her hair down, and the letter in her hand showing white in
the gloom. After her comes the engineer. The pair of them move down
towards the high road.

Ragnhild comes rushing in to me and flings herself on a chair, all out of
breath and bursting with news. Such things had happened this evening, she
whispered. Shut the window! Fruen and that engineer fellow--never a
thought of being careful--'twas as near as ever could be but they'd have
done it. He was holding on to her when Ragnhild went in with the letter.
Ugh! Up in Fruen's room, with the lamp blown out.

"You're mad," said I to Ragnhild.

But the girl had both heard and seen well enough, it seemed. She was grown
so used to playing the spy that she could not help spying on her mistress
as well. An uncommon sort, was Ragnhild.

I put on a lofty air at first and would have none of her tale-bearing,
thank you, listening at keyholes. Fie!

But how could she help it, she replied. Her orders were to bring up the
letter as soon as her mistress put out the light, and not before. But
Fruen's windows looked out to the shrubbery, where the Captain was sitting
with Elisabet from the vicarage. No place for Ragnhild there. Better to
wait upstairs in the passage, and just take a look at the keyhole now and
again, to see if the light was out.

This sounded a little more reasonable.

"But only think of it," said Ragnhild suddenly, shaking her head in
admiration. "What a fellow he must be, that engineer, to get as near as
that with Fruen."

As near as what! Jealousy seized me; I gave up my lofty pose, and
questioned Ragnhild searchingly about it all. What did she say they were
doing? How did it all come about?

Ragnhild could not say how it began. Fruen had given her orders about a
letter that was to be fetched from Lars Falkenberg's, and when it arrived,
she was to wait till the light went out in Fruen's room, and then bring it
up. "Very good," said Ragnhild. "But not till I put out the light, you
understand," said Fruen again. And Ragnhild had set herself to wait for
the letter. But the time seemed endless, and she fell to thinking and
wondering about it all; there was something strange about it. She went up
into the passage and listened. She could hear Fruen and the engineer
talking easily and without restraint; stooping down to the keyhole, she
saw her mistress loosening her hair, with the engineer looking on and
saying how lovely she was. And then--ah, that engineer--he kissed her.

"On the lips, was it?..."

Ragnhild saw I was greatly excited, and tried to reassure me.

"Well, perhaps not quite. I won't be sure; but still ... and he's not a
pretty mouth, anyway, to my mind.... I say, though, you've shaved all
clean this evening. How nice! Let me see...."

"But what did Fruen say to that? Did she slip away?"

"Yes, I think so; yes, of course she did--and screamed."

"Did she, though?"

"Yes; out loud. And he said '_Sh_!' And every time she raised her
voice he said '_Sh_!' again. But Fruen said let them hear, it didn't
matter; they were sitting down there making love in the shrubbery
themselves. That's what she said, and it was the Captain and Elisabet from
the vicarage she meant. 'There, you can see them,' she said, and went to
the window. 'I know, I know,' says the engineer; 'but, for Heaven's sake,
don't stand there with your hair down!' and he went over and got her away
from the window. Then they said a whole heap of things, and every time he
tried to whisper Fruen talked out loud again. 'If only you wouldn't
shout,' he said. 'We could be ever so quiet up here.' Then she was quiet
for a bit, and just sat there smiling at him without a word. She was ever
so fond of him."

"Was she?"

"Yes, indeed, I could see that much. Only fancy, a fellow like that! He
leaned over towards her, and put his hand so--there."

"And Fruen sat still and let him?"

"Well, yes, a little. But then she went over to the window again, and came
back, and put out her tongue like that--and went straight up to him and
kissed him. I can't think how she could. For his mouth's not a bit nice,
really. Then he said, 'Now we're all alone, and we can hear if anybody
comes.' 'What about Bror and his partner?' said she. 'Oh; they are out
somewhere, at the other end of the earth,' said he. 'We're all alone;
don't let me have to keep on asking you now!' And then he took hold of her
and picked her up--oh, he was so strong, so strong! 'No, no; leave go!'
she cried."

"Go on!" I said breathlessly. "What next?"

"Why, it was just then you came up with the letter, and I didn't see what
happened next. And when I went back, they'd turned the key in the lock, so
I could hardly see at all. But I heard Fruen saying: 'Oh, what are you
doing? No, no, we mustn't!' She must have been in his arms then. And then
at last she said: 'Wait, then; let me get down a minute.' And he let her
go. 'Blow out the lamp,' she said. And then it was all dark ... oh!..."

"But now I was at my wits' end what to do," Ragnhild went on. "I stood a
minute all in a flurry, and was just going to knock at the door all at
once--"

"Yes, yes; why didn't you? What on earth made you wait at all?"

"Why, if I had, then Fruen'd have known in a moment I'd been listening
outside," answered the girl. "No, I slipped away from the door and down
the stairs, then turned back and went up again, treading hard so Fruen
could hear the way I came. The door was still fastened, but I knocked, and
Fruen came and opened it. But the engineer was just behind; he'd got hold
of her clothes, and was simply wild after her. 'Don't go! don't go!' he
kept on saying, and never taking the slightest notice of me. But then,
when I turned to go, Fruen came out with me. Oh, but only think. It was as
near as could be!..."

* * * * *

A long, restless night.

At noon, when we men came home from the fields next day, the maids were
whispering something about a scene between the Captain and his wife.
Ragnhild knew all about it. The Captain had noticed his wife with her hair
down the night before, and the lamp out upstairs, and laughed at her hair
and said wasn't it pretty! And Fruen said nothing much at first, but
waited her chance, and then she said: "Yes, I know. I like to let my hair
down now and again, and why not? It isn't yours!" She was none so clever,
poor thing, at answering back in a quarrel.

Then Elisabet had come up and put in her word. And she was smarter--
_prrr_! Fruen did manage to say: "Well, anyhow we were in the house,
but you two were sitting out among the bushes!" And Elisabet turned sharp
at that, and snapped out: "We didn't put out the light!" "And if we did,"
said Fruen, "it made no difference; we came down directly after."

Heavens! I thought to myself, why ever didn't she say they put the light
out _because_ they were going down?

That was the end of it for a while. But then, later on, the Captain said
something about Fruen being so much older than Elisabet. "You ought always
to wear your hair down," he said. "On my word, it made you look quite a
girl!" "Oh yes, I dare say I need it now," answered Fruen. But seeing
Elisabet turn away laughing, she flared up all of a sudden and told her to
take herself off. And Elisabet put her hands on her hips, and asked the
Captain to order her carriage. "Right!" says the Captain at that; "and
I'll drive you myself!"

All this Ragnhild had heard for herself standing close by.

I thought to myself they were jealous, the pair of them--she, of this
sitting out in the shrubbery, and he, of her letting her hair down and
putting out the light.

As we came out of the kitchen, and were going across for a rest, there was
the Captain busy with Elisabet's carriage. He called me up and said:

"I ought not to ask you now, when you're having your rest, but I wish
you'd go down and mend the door of the summer-house for me."

"Right!" I said.

Now that door had been wrong ever since the engineer burst it open several
nights before. What made the Captain so anxious to have it put right just
at this moment? He'd have no use for the summerhouse while he was driving
Elisabet home. Was it because he wanted to shut the place up so no one
else should use it while he was away? It was a significant move, if so.

I took some tools and things and went down to the shrubbery.

And now I had my first look at the summer-house from inside. It was
comparatively new; it had not been there six years before. A roomy place,
with pictures on the walls, and even an alarm clock--now run down--chairs
with cushions, a table, and an upholstered settee covered with red plush.
The blinds were down.

I set a couple of pieces in the roof first, where I'd smashed it with my
empty bottle; then I took off the lock to see what was wrong there. While
I was busy with this the Captain came up. He had evidently been drinking
already that day, or was suffering from a heavy bout the night before.

"That's no burglary," he said. "Either the door must have been left open,
and slammed itself to bits, or some one must have stumbled up against it
in the dark. One of the visitors, perhaps, that left the other day."

But the door had been roughly handled, one could see: the lock was burst
open, and the woodwork on the inside of the frame torn away.

"Let me see! Put a new bolt in here, and force the spring back in place,"
said the Captain, examining the lock. He sat down in a chair.

Fru Falkenberg came down the stone steps to the shrubbery, and called:

"Is the Captain there?"

"Yes," said I.

Then she came up. Her face was twitching with emotion.

"I'd like a word with you," she said. "I won't keep you long."

The Captain answered, without rising:

"Certainly. Will you sit down, or would you rather stand? No, don't run
away, you! I've none too much time as it is," he said sharply to me.

This I took to mean that he wanted the lock mended so he could take the
key with him when he went.

"I dare say it wasn't--I oughtn't to have said what I did," Fruen began.

The Captain made no answer.

But his silence, after she had come down on purpose to try and make it up,
was more than she could bear. She ended by saying: "Oh, well, it's all the
same; I don't care."

And she turned to go.

"Did you want to speak to me?" asked the Captain.

"Oh no, it doesn't matter. Thanks, I shan't trouble."

"Very well," said the Captain. He smiled as he spoke. He was drunk, no
doubt, and angry about something.

But Fruen turned as she passed by me in the doorway, and said:

"You ought not to drive down there today. There's gossip enough already."

"You need not listen to it," he answered.

"It can't go on like this, you know," she said again. "And you don't seem
to think of the disgrace...."

"We're both a little thoughtless in that respect," he answered carelessly,
looking round at the walls.

I took the lock and stepped outside.

"Here, don't go running away now!" cried the Captain. "I'm in a hurry!"

"Yes, you're in a hurry, of course," repeated Fruen. "Going away again.
But you'd do well to think it over just for once. I've been thinking
things over myself lately; only you wouldn't see...."

"What do you mean?" he asked, haughty and stiff as ever. "Was it your
fooling about at night with your hair down and lights out you thought I
wouldn't see? Oh yes, no doubt!"

"I'll have to finish this on the anvil," said I, and hurried off.

I stayed away longer than was needed, but when I came back Fruen was still
there. They were talking louder than before.

"And do you know what I have done?" said Fruen "I've lowered myself so far
as to show I was jealous. Yes, I've done that. Oh, only about the
maid ... I mean...."

"Well, and what then?" said the Captain.

"Oh, won't you understand? Well, have it your own way, then. You'll have
to take the consequences later; make no mistake about that!"

These were her last words, and they sounded like an arrow striking a
shield. She stepped out and strode away.

"Manage it all right?" said the Captain as I came up. But I could see his
thoughts were busy with other things; he was trying to appear unconcerned.
A little after, he managed to yawn, and said lazily: "Ugh, it's a long
drive. But if Nils can't spare a hand I must go myself."

I had only to fix the lock in its place, and set a new strip down the
inside of the door-frame; it was soon done. The Captain tried the door,
put the key in his pocket, thanked me for the work, and went off.

A little later he drove away with Elisabet.

"See you again soon," he called to Captain Bror and Engineer Lassen,
waving his hand to them both. "Mind that you have a good time while I'm
away!"

IV

Evening came. And what would happen now? A great deal, as it turned out.

It started early; we men were at supper while they were having dinner up
at the house, and we could hear them carrying on as gaily as could be.
Ragnhild was taking in trays of food and bottles, and waiting at table;
once when she came out, she laughed to herself and said to the other
girls: "I believe Fruen's drunk herself tonight."

I had not slept the night before, nor had my midday rest; I was troubled
and nervous after all that had happened the last two days. So, as soon as
I had finished my supper, I went out and up to the woods to be alone. I
stayed there a long while.

I looked down towards the house. The Captain away, the servants gone to
rest, the beasts in stable and shed fast asleep. Stout Captain Bror and
his lady, too, had doubtless found a quiet corner all to themselves after
dinner; he was simply wild about the woman, for all he was old and fat and
she herself no longer young. That left only Fru Falkenberg and the young
engineer. And where would they be now?

'Twas their affair.

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 was she walking about half undressed? No,
but Captain Bror was, and Fruen clapped her hands and cried "Bravo!" And
the engineer as well. It was one as bad as the other. And Ragnhild had
just taken in two more bottles of wine, though they were drunk already.

"Come over with me and you can hear them yourself," said Ragnhild.
"They're up in Fruen's room now."

"No," I said. "I'm going to bed. And you'd better go, too."

"But they'll ring in a minute and be wanting something if I do."

"Let them ring!"

And then it was Ragnhild confessed that the Captain himself had asked her
to stay up that night in case Fruen should want her.

This altered the whole aspect of affairs in a moment. Evidently the
Captain had feared something might happen, and set Ragnhild on guard in
case. I put on my blouse again and went across with her to the house.

We went upstairs and stood in the passage; we could hear them laughing and
making a noise in Fruen's room. But Fruen herself spoke as clearly as
ever, and was not drunk at all. "Yes, she is," said Ragnhild, "anyhow,
she's not like herself tonight."

I wished I could have seen her for a moment.

We went back to the kitchen and sat down. But I was restless all the time;
after a little I took down the lamp from the wall and told Ragnhild to
follow me. We went upstairs again.

"No; go in and ask Fruen to come out here to me," I said.

"Why, whatever for?"

"I've a message for her."

And Ragnhild knocked at the door and went in.

It was only at the last moment I hit on any message to give. I could
simply look her straight in the face and say: "The Captain sent his kind
regards." [Footnote: _Kapteinen bad mig hilse Dem_: literally, "The
Captain bade me greet you." Such a message would not seem quite so
uncalled for in Norway, such greetings (_Hilsen_) being given and
sent more frequently, and on slighter occasions, than with us.] Would that
be enough? I might say more: "The Captain was obliged to drive himself,
because Nils couldn't spare any one to go."

But a moment can be long at times, and thought a lightning flash. I found
time to reject both these plans and hatch out another before Fruen came.
Though I doubt if my last plan was any better.

Fruen asked in surprise:

"Well, what do you want?"

Ragnhild came up, too, and looked at me wonderingly.

I turned the lamp towards Fruen's face and said:

"I beg pardon for coming up so late. I'll be going to the post first thing
tomorrow; I thought if perhaps Fruen had any letters to go?"

"Letters? No," she answered, shaking her head.

There was an absent look in her eyes, but she did not look in the least as
if she had been drinking.

"No, I've no letters," she said, and moved to go.

"Beg pardon, then," I said.

"Was it the Captain told you to go to the post?" she asked.

"No, I was just going for myself."

She turned and went back to her room. Before she was well through the door
I heard her say to the others:

"A nice pretext, indeed."

Ragnhild and I went down again. I had seen her.

Oh, but I was humbled now indeed! And it did not ease my mind at all when
Ragnhild incautiously let out a further piece of news. It seemed she had
been romancing before; it was not true about the Captain's having asked
her to keep a look out. I grew more and more convinced in my own mind:
Ragnhild was playing the spy on her own account, for sheer love of the
game.

I left her, and, went up to my room. What had my clumsy intrusion gained
for me, after all? A pretext, she had said; clearly she had seen through
it all. Disgusted with myself, I vowed that for the future I would leave
things and people to themselves.

I threw myself down fully dressed on the bed.

After a while I heard Fru Falkenberg's voice outside in front of the
house; my window was open, and she spoke loudly enough. The engineer was
with her, putting in a word now and again. Fruen was in raptures over the
weather, so fine it was, and such a warm night. Oh, it was lovely out
now--ever so much nicer than indoors!

But her voice seemed a trifle less clear now than before.

I ran to the window, and saw the pair of them standing by the steps that
led down to the shrubbery. The engineer seemed to have something on his
mind that he had not been able to get said before. "Do listen to me now,"
he said. Then followed a brief and earnest pleading, which was answered--
ay, and rewarded. He spoke as if to one hard of hearing, because she had
been deaf to his words so long; they stood there by the stone steps,
neither of them caring for any one else in the world. Let any listen or
watch who pleased; the night was theirs, the world was theirs, and the
spring-time was about them, drawing them together. He watched her like a
cat; every movement of her body set his blood tingling; he was ready to
spring upon her in a moment. And when it came near to action there was a
power of will in his manner towards her. Ay, the young spark!

"I've begged and prayed you long enough," he said breathlessly. "Yesterday
you all but would; today you're deaf again. You think you and Bror and
Tante [Footnote: "Auntie." Evidently Captain Bror's lady is meant.] and
the rest are to have a good time and no harm done, while I look on and
play the nice young man? But, by Heaven, you're wrong! Here's you
yourself, a garden of all good things right in front of me, and a fence
... do you know what I'm going to do now with that silly fence?"

"What are you going to do? No, Hugo, you've had too much to drink this
evening. You're so young. We've both drunk more than we ought," she said.

"And then you play me false into the bargain, with your tricks. You send a
special messenger for a letter that simply can't wait, and at the same
time you're cruel enough to let me think ... to promise me...."

"I'll never do it again, Hugo."

"Never do it again? What do you mean by that? When you can go up to a
man--yes, to me, and kiss me like you did.... What's the good of saying
you'll never do it any more; it's done, and a kiss like that's not a thing
to forget. I can feel it still, and it's a mad delight, and I thank you
for it You've got that letter in your dress; let me see it."

"You're so excited, Hugo. No, it's getting late now. We'd better say
good-night."

"Will you show me that letter?"

"Show you the letter? Certainly not!"

At that he made a half-spring, as if to take it by force, but checked
himself, and snapped out:

"What? You won't? Well, on my word you are.... Mean's not the word for it.
You're something worse...."

"Hugo!"

"Yes, you are!"

"If you _will_ see the letter, here it is!" She thrust her hand into
her blouse, took out the letter, opened it, and waved it at him,
flourishing her innocence. "Here's the letter--from my mother; there's her
signature--look. From mother--and now what have you to say?"

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