“Come with me and have a glass of beer,” he said. “But hurry up, I haven’t much time. … What lady was that you were walking with yesterday evening?”
“Listen here now,” said I, jealous of his bare thought. “Supposing it was my fiancée.”
“By Jove!” he exclaimed.
“Yes; it was all settled yesterday evening.”
This nonplussed him completely. He believed me implicitly. I lied in the most accomplished manner to get rid of him. We ordered the beer, drank it, and left.
“Well, goodbye! Oh, listen,” he said suddenly. “I owe you a few shillings. It is a shame, too, that I haven’t paid you long ago, but now you shall have them during the next few days.”
“Yes, thanks,” I replied; but I knew that he would never pay me back the few shillings. The beer, I am sorry to say, went almost immediately to my head. The thought of the previous evening’s adventure overwhelmed me—made me delirious. Supposing she were not to meet me on Tuesday! Supposing she were to begin to think things over, to get suspicious … get suspicious of what? … My thoughts gave a jerk and dwelt upon the money. I grew afraid; deadly afraid of myself. The theft rushed in upon me in all its details. I saw the little shop, the counter, my lean hands as I seized the money, and I pictured to myself the line of action the police would adopt when they would come to arrest me. Irons on my hands and feet; no, only on my hands; perhaps only on one hand. The dock, the clerk taking down the evidence, the scratch of his pen—perhaps he might take a new one for the occasion—his look, his threatening look. There, Herr Tangen, to the cell, the eternally dark …
Humph! I clenched my hands tightly to try and summon courage, walked faster and faster, and came to the marketplace. There I sat down.
Now, no child’s play. How in the wide world could anyone prove that I had stolen? Besides, the huckster’s boy dare not give an alarm, even if it should occur to him some day how it had all happened. He valued his situation far too dearly for that. No noise, no scenes, may I beg!
But all the same, this money weighed in my pocket sinfully, and gave me no peace. I began to question myself, and I became clearly convinced that I had been happier before, during the period in which I had suffered in all honour. And Ylajali? Had I, too, not polluted her with the touch of my sinful hands? Lord, O Lord my God, Ylajali! I felt as drunk as a bat, jumped up suddenly, and went straight over to the cake woman who was sitting near the chemist’s under the sign of the elephant. I might even yet lift myself above dishonour; it was far from being too late; I would show the whole world that I was capable of doing so.
On the way over I got the money in readiness, held every farthing of it in my hand, bent down over the old woman’s table as if I wanted something, and clapped the money without further ado into her hands. I spoke not a word, turned on my heel, and went my way.
What a wonderful savour there was in feeling oneself an honest man once more! My empty pockets troubled me no longer; it was simply a delightful feeling to me to be cleaned out. When I weighed the whole matter thoroughly, this money had in reality cost me much secret anguish; I had really thought about it with dread and shuddering time upon time. I was no hardened soul; my honourable nature rebelled against such a low action. God be praised, I had raised myself in my own estimation again! “Do as I have done!” I said to myself, looking across the thronged marketplace—“only just do as I have done!” I had gladdened a poor old cake vendor to such good purpose that she was perfectly dumbfounded. Tonight her children wouldn’t go hungry to bed. … I buoyed myself up with these reflections and considered that I had behaved in a most exemplary manner. God be praised! The money was out of my hands now!
Tipsy and nervous, I wandered down the street, and swelled with satisfaction. The joy of being able to meet Ylajali cleanly and honourably, and of feeling I could look her in the face, ran away with me. I was not conscious of any pain. My head was clear and buoyant; it was as if it were a head of mere light that rested and gleamed on my shoulders. I felt inclined to play the wildest pranks, to do something astounding, to set the whole town in a ferment. All up through Graendsen I conducted myself like a madman. There was a buzzing in my ears, and intoxication ran riot in my brains. The whim seized me to go and tell my age to a commissionaire, who, by-the-way, had not addressed a word to me; to take hold of his hands, and gaze impressively in his face, and leave him again, without any explanation. I distinguished every nuance in the voice and laughter of the passersby, observed some little birds that hopped before me in the street, took to studying the expression of the paving-stones, and discovered all sorts of tokens and signs in them. Thus occupied, I arrive at length at Parliament Place. I stand all at once stock-still, and look at the droshkies; the drivers are wandering about, chatting and laughing. The horses hang their heads and cower in the bitter weather. “Go ahead!” I say, giving myself a dig with my elbow. I went hurriedly over to the first vehicle, and got in. “Ullevoldsveien, No. 37,” I called out, and we
