AND 
 
 \uust Strin
 
 '
 
 FAIR HAVEN 
 
 AND 
 
 FOUL STRAND
 
 FAIR HAVEN 
 
 AND 
 
 FOUL STRAND 
 
 BY 
 
 AUGUST STRINDBERG 
 
 NEW YORK 
 McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY 
 
 MCMXIV
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL 
 STRAND 
 
 THE quarantine doctor was a man of five-and- 
 sixty, well-preserved, short, slim and elastic, 
 with a military bearing which recalled the fact 
 that he had served in the Army Medical Corps. 
 From birth he belonged to the eccentrics who feel 
 uncomfortable in life and are never at home in it. 
 Born in a mining district, of well-to-do but stern 
 parents, he had no pleasant recollections of his 
 childhood. His father and mother never spoke 
 kindly, even when there was occasion to do so, 
 but always harshly, with or without cause. His 
 mother was one of those strange characters who 
 get angry about nothing. Her anger arose with- 
 out visible cause, so that her son sometimes 
 thought she was not right in her head, and some- 
 times that she was deaf and could not hear prop- 
 erly, for occasionally her response to an act of 
 
 A 
 
 2031413
 
 2 FAIR HAYEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 kindness was a box on the ears. Therefore the 
 boy became mistrustful towards people in general, 
 for the only natural bond which should have 
 united him to humanity with tenderness, was 
 broken, and everything in life assumed a hostile 
 appearance. Accordingly, though he did not 
 show it, he was always in a posture of defence. 
 
 At school he had friends, but since he did not 
 know how sincerely he wished them well, he 
 became submissive, and made all kinds of con- 
 cessions in order to preserve his faith in real 
 friendship. By so doing he let his friends en- 
 croach so much that they oppressed him and 
 began to tyrannise over him. When matters 
 came to this point, he went his own way without 
 giving any explanations. But he soon found a 
 new friend with whom the same story was 
 repeated from beginning to end. The result was 
 that later in life he only sought for acquaintances, 
 and grew accustomed to rely only upon himself. 
 When he was confirmed, and felt mature and 
 responsible through being declared ecclesiasti- 
 cally of age, an event happened which proved a 
 turning-point in his life. He came home too late 
 for a meal and his mother received him with a 
 shower of blows from a stick. Without thinking, 
 the young man raised his hand, and gave her a 
 box on the ear. For a moment mother and son
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 3 
 
 confronted each other, he expecting the roof to 
 fall in or that he would be struck dead in some 
 miraculous way. But nothing happened. His 
 mother went out as though nothing had occurred, 
 and behaved afterwards as though nothing un- 
 usual had taken place between them. 
 
 Later on in life when this affair recurred to his 
 memory, he wondered what must have passed 
 through her mind. She had cast one look to the 
 ceiling as though she sought there for something 
 an invisible hand perhaps, or had she resigned 
 herself to it, because she had at last seen that it 
 was a well-deserved retribution, and therefore 
 not called him to account? It was strange, that 
 in spite of desperate efforts to produce pangs of 
 conscience, he never felt any self-reproach on the 
 subject. It seemed to have happened without his 
 will, and as though it must happen. 
 
 Nevertheless, it marked a boundary-line in his 
 life. The cord was cut and he fell out in life alone, 
 away from his mother and domesticity. He felt 
 as though he had been born without father and 
 mother. Both seemed to him strangers whom he 
 would have found it most natural to call Mr and 
 Mrs So-and-so. At the University he at once 
 noticed the difference between his lot and that of 
 his companions. They had parents, brothers, 
 and sisters ; there was an order and succession in
 
 4 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 their life. They had relations to their fellow-men 
 and obeyed secret social laws. They felt instinc- 
 tively that he did not belong to their fold. 
 
 When as a young doctor he acted on behalf of 
 an army medical officer for some time, he felt at 
 once that he was not in his proper place, and so 
 did the officers. The silent resistance which he 
 offered from the first to their imperiousness and 
 arbitrary ways marked him out as a dissatisfied 
 critic, and he was left to himself. 
 
 In the hospital it was the same. Here he per- 
 ceived at once the fateful predestination of social 
 election, those who were called and those who 
 were not called. It seemed as though the 
 authorities could discern by scent those who were 
 congenial to them. And so it was everywhere. 
 He started a practice as a ladies' doctor, but had 
 no luck, for he demanded straightforward answers 
 to his questions, and those he never received. 
 Then he became impatient, and was considered 
 brutal. He became a Government sanitary 
 officer in a remote part of the country, and since 
 he was now independent of his patients' favour, 
 he troubled himself still less about pleasing them. 
 Presently he was transferred to the quarantine 
 service, and was finally stationed at Skamsund. 
 
 When he had come here, now seventeen years 
 ago, he at once began to be at variance with the
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 6 
 
 pilots, who, as the only authorities on the island, 
 indulged themselves in many acts of arbitrariness 
 towards the inhabitants. The quarantine doctor 
 loved peace and quietness like other men, but he 
 had early learnt that warfare is necessary; and 
 that it is no use simply to be passive as regards 
 one's rights, but that one must defend them every 
 day and every hour of the day. Since he was a 
 new-comer they tried to curtail his authority and 
 deprive him of his small privileges. The chief 
 pilot had a prescriptive right to half the land, but 
 the quarantine doctor had in his bay a small 
 promontory where the pilots used to moor their 
 private boats and store their fishing implements. 
 The doctor first ascertained his legal rights in the 
 matter, and when he found out that he had the 
 sole right of using the promontory and that the 
 pilots could store their fishing-tackle elsewhere, he 
 went to the chief pilot and gave them a friendly 
 notice to quit. When he saw that mere polite- 
 ness was of no avail, he took stronger measures, 
 had the place cleared and fenced off by I-!* 
 servants, turned it into a garden, and erected a 
 simple pavilion in it. The pilots hailed petitions 
 on the Government, but the matter was decided 
 in his favour. The result was a lifelong enmity 
 between him and the pilots. The quarantine 
 doctor was shut in on his promontory and him-
 
 6 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 self placed in quarantine. There he had now 
 remained for seventeen years, but not in peace, 
 for there was always strife. Either his dog fought 
 with the pilots' dog, or their fowls came into his 
 garden, or they ran their boats ashore on each 
 other's ground. Thus he was kept in a continual 
 state of anger and excitement, and even if there 
 ever was quiet for a moment outside the house, 
 inside there was the housekeeper. They had 
 quarrelled for seventeen years, and once every 
 week she had packed her things in order to go. 
 She was a tyrant and insisted that her master 
 should have sugar in all his sauces, even with 
 fresh cod. During all the seventeen years she 
 had not learnt how to boil an egg but wished the 
 doctor to learn to eat half -raw eggs, which he 
 hated. Sometimes he got tired of quarrelling, 
 and then everything went on in Kristin's old way. 
 He would eat raw potatoes, stale bread, sour 
 cream and such-like for a whole week and admire 
 himself as a Socrates ; then his self-respect awoke 
 and he began to storm again. He had to storm 
 in order to get the salt-cellar placed on the table, 
 to get the doors shut, to get the lamps filled with 
 oil. The lamp-chimneys and wicks he had to 
 clean himself, for that she could not learn. 
 
 1 You are a cow, Kristin ! You are a wretch 
 who cannot value kindness. Do you like me to
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 7 
 
 storm? Do you know that I abominate myself 
 when I am obliged to get so excited. You make 
 me bad, and you are a poisonous worm. I wish 
 you had never been born, and lay in the depths of 
 the earth. You are not a human being for you 
 cannot learn ; you are a cow, that you are ! You 
 will go? Yes, go to the deuce, where you came 
 from!" 
 
 But Kristin never went. Once indeed she got 
 as far as the steamer bridge, but turned round 
 and entered the wood, whence the doctor had to 
 fetch her home. 
 
 The doctor's only acquaintance was the post- 
 master at Fagervik, an old comrade of his student 
 days, who came over every Saturday evening. 
 Then the two drank and gossiped till past mid- 
 night and the postmaster remained till Sunday 
 morning. They certainly did not look at life and 
 their fellow-men from the same point of view, for 
 the postmaster was a decided member of the Left 
 Party, and the doctor was a sceptic, but their 
 talk suited each other so well, that their con- 
 versation was like a part-song, or piece of music, 
 for two voices, in which the voices, although 
 varying, yet formed a harmony. The doctor, with 
 his wider mental outlook, sometimes expressed 
 disapproval of his companion's sentiments some- 
 what as follows :
 
 8 FAIR HAYEN AND FOTJL STRAND 
 
 ' You party-men are like one-eyed cats. Some 
 see only with the left eye, others with the right, 
 and therefore you can never see stereoscopically, 
 but always flat and one-sidedly." 
 
 They were both great newspaper readers and 
 followed the course of all questions with eager- 
 ness. The most burning question, however, 
 was the religious one, for the political ones were 
 settled by votes in the Reichstag and came to an 
 end, but the religious questions never ended. 
 The postmaster hated pietists and temperance 
 advocates. 
 
 ' Why the deuce do you hate the pietists ? ' ' 
 the doctor would say. ' What harm have they 
 done you? Let them enjoy themselves; it doesn't 
 affect me." 
 
 ' They are all hypocrites," said the postmaster 
 dogmatically. 
 
 "No," answered the doctor, 'you cannot 
 judge, for you have never been a pietist, but I 
 have, and I was deuce take me no hypocrite. 
 But I don't do it again. That is to say one 
 never knows, for it comes over one, or does not 
 it all depends on " 
 
 "On what?" 
 
 " Hard to say. Pietism, for the rest, is a kind 
 of European Buddhism. Both regard the world 
 as an unclean place of punishment for the soul.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 9 
 
 Therefore they seek to counteract material 
 influences, and in that they are not so wrong. 
 That they do not succeed is obvious, but the 
 struggle itself deserves respect. Their apparent 
 hypocrisy results from the fact that they do not 
 reach the goal they aim at, and their life always 
 halts behind their teaching. That the priests of 
 the church hate them is clear, for our married 
 dairy farmers, card players and good diners do 
 not love these apostles who show their unneces- 
 sariness and their defects. You know our clergy 
 out there on the islands ; I need not gossip about 
 them, for you know. There you have the hypo- 
 crites, especially among the unfortunates, who 
 after going through their examination have lost 
 faith in all doctrines." 
 
 ' Yes, but the pietists are enemies to culture." 
 " No, I don't find that. When I came to this 
 island it was inhabited by three hundred besotted 
 beasts who led the life of devils. And now you 
 see for yourself. They are not lovable nor lively, 
 but they are, at any rate, quiet, so that one can 
 sleep at night; and they don't fight, so that one 
 can walk about the island without fear for one's 
 life and limbs. In a word, the simplest blessings 
 of civilisation were the distinct result of the erec- 
 tion of the prayer-house." 
 
 " The prayer-house which you never enter ! '
 
 10 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 " No, I don't belong to that fold. But have 
 you ever been there? " 
 
 "I? No! " 
 ' You should hear them once at any rate." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "You daren't! " 
 
 " Daren't! Is it dangerous? ' 
 
 "So they say! " 
 
 "Not for me." 
 
 " Shall we wager a barrel of punch? ' 
 
 The postmaster reflected an instant, not so 
 much on the punch as on the doctor's suspecting 
 him of cowardice. 
 
 " Done ! I will go there on Friday. And you 
 can carry the punch home in a boat, if you see 
 anything go wrong with me." 
 
 The day came and the postmaster ate his dinner 
 with the doctor, before he took his way, as agreed, 
 to the prayer-house. He had told no one of his 
 intention, partly because he feared that the 
 preacher might aim at him, partly because he did 
 not wish to get the reputation of being a pietist. 
 After dinner he borrowed a box of snuff to keep 
 himself awake, in spite of the doctor's assurance 
 that he would not have any chance of sleeping. 
 And so he went. 
 
 The doctor walked about his garden waiting 
 for the result of the experiment to which many
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 11 
 
 a stronger man than the postmaster had suc- 
 cumbed. He waited for an hour and a half; he 
 waited two hours; he waited three. Then at last 
 he saw the congregation coming out a sign that 
 it was over. But the postmaster did not appear. 
 The doctor became uneasy. Another hour passed, 
 and at last he saw his friend coming out of the 
 wood. He came with a somewhat artificial liveli- 
 ness and there was something forced in the 
 springiness of his gait. When he saw the doctor, 
 he made a slight wriggling movement with his 
 legs, and shrugged his shoulders as though his 
 clothes were too tight for him. 
 
 " Well? " asked the doctor. " It was tedious, 
 wasn't it? " 
 
 " Yes," was the only answer. 
 
 They went down to the pavilion and took their 
 seats opposite each other, although the post- 
 master was shy of showing his face, into which a 
 new expression had come. 
 
 " Give me a pinch of snuff," said the doctor 
 slyly. 
 
 The postmaster drew out the snuff-box, which 
 had been untouched. 
 
 " You did not sleep? " resumed the doctor. 
 
 The postmaster felt embarrassed. 
 ' Well, old fellow, you are not cheerful ! What 
 is the matter ? Stop a minute ! ' The doctor
 
 12 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 indicated with his forefinger the space between 
 his friend's eyes and nose as though he wished 
 to show him something, " I believe . . . you 
 have been crying ! ' 
 
 ' ' Nonsense ! ' ' answered the postmaster, and 
 straightened himself up. " But, at any rate, you 
 know I am not easily befooled, but as I said that 
 fellow is a wizard." 
 
 " Tell us, tell us! Fancy your believing in 
 wizards ! ' : 
 
 "Yes, it was so strange." He paused for a 
 while and continued : 
 
 " Can you imagine it? He preached, as was 
 to be expected, especially to me. And in the 
 middle of his preaching he told me all the secrets 
 which, like everyone else, I have kept most 
 jealously hidden from my childhood's days and 
 earlier. I felt that I reddened, and that the whole 
 congregation looked at me as "though they knew 
 it also, which is quite impossible. They nodded, 
 keeping time with his words and looking at me 
 simultaneously. Yes, they turned round on 
 their seats. Even regarded as witchcraft it 
 was " 
 
 "Yes, yes, I know it, and therefore I take 
 care. What it is I don't know, but it is something 
 which I keep at arm's length. And it is the same 
 with Swedenborg. I sat once in an ante-room
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STBAND 13 
 
 waiting for admission. Behind me stood a book- 
 case from which a book projected and prevented 
 me from leaning my head back. I took the book 
 down and it was part of Swedenborg's ' Arcana 
 Coelestia.' I opened it at random and can you 
 imagine it? in two minutes a subject which just 
 then occupied my thoughts was explained to me in 
 such detail and with an almost alarming amount 
 of expert knowledge, that it was quite uncanny. 
 In two minutes I was quite clear regarding myself 
 and my concerns." 
 
 "Well, tell us about it." 
 ' No, I won't. You know yourself that the life 
 we live in thought is secret, and what we experi- 
 ence in secret. . . . Yes, we are not what we 
 seem." 
 
 "No." His friend broke in hastily. "No; 
 our actions are very easy to control, but our 
 thoughts . . . ugh ! r 
 
 :< And thoughts are the deeds of the mind, as 
 I have read somewhere. With our silent, evil 
 thoughts we can infect others; we can transfer 
 our evil purposes to others who execute them. 
 Do you remember the case of the child murderess 
 here ten years ago? ): 
 
 " No, I was away then." 
 
 " She was a young children's nurse, innocent, 
 fond of children, and had always been kind, as
 
 14 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 
 
 was elicited in examination. During the summer 
 she was in the service of an actress up there in 
 Fagervik. In August she was arrested for child 
 murder. I was present in court when she was 
 examined. She could not assign any reason for 
 her action. But the judge wished to find out the 
 reason, since she had no personal motive for it. 
 The witnesses declared that she had loved the 
 child, and she admitted it. At her second 
 examination she was beside herself with remorse 
 and horror at the terrible deed, but still behaved 
 as though she were not really guilty, although she 
 assumed the responsibility for the crime. At the 
 third examination the judge tried to help her, 
 and put the question, ' How did the idea come to 
 you of murdering an innocent child whom you 
 loved ? Think carefully ! ' The girl cast a look of 
 despair round the court, but when her eyes rested 
 on the mother of the child, the actress, who was 
 present for the first time, she answered the judge 
 simply and naturally. ' I believe that my mis- 
 tress wished it.' You should have seen the 
 woman's face as these words were uttered. It 
 seemed to me that her clothes dropped from her 
 and she stood there exposed, and foi the first 
 time I thought of the abysmal depths of the 
 human soul, over which a judge must walk w r ith 
 bandaged eyes, for he has no right to punish us
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 15 
 
 in our interior life of thought; there we punish 
 ourselves and that is what the pietists do." 
 
 " What you say is true enough, but I know 
 also that my inner life is sometimes higher and 
 purer than my outward life." 
 
 " I grant it. I have also an idea of my better 
 ego, which is the best I know. . . . But tell me, 
 what have you been doing for a whole hour in 
 the wood?" 
 
 " I was thinking." 
 
 ' You are not going to be a pietist, I sup- 
 pose," broke in the doctor as he filled his glass. 
 
 "No, not I." 
 
 ' ' But you no longer think the pietists are 
 humbugs? '' 
 
 To this the postmaster made no reply. But 
 the drinking did not go briskly that evening, and 
 the conversation was on higher topics than usual. 
 Towards ten o'clock a terrible howling like that 
 of wild beasts came over the Sound. It was from 
 the garden of the hotel in Fagervik. Both the 
 philosophers glanced in that direction. 
 
 ' They are the crews of the cutters, of 
 course," said the postmaster. " They are cer- 
 tainly fighting too. Yes, Fagervik is going down 
 because of the rows at night. The holiday visitors 
 run away for they cannot sleep, and they have 
 thought of closing the beer-shops."
 
 16 FAIR HATEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 "And of opening a prayer-house, perhaps? ' 
 
 This question also remained unanswered, and 
 they parted without knowing exactly how they 
 stood with each other. 
 
 Meanwhile the report spread in Fagervik that 
 the postmaster had been to the prayer-house, 
 and when the next afternoon he found himself 
 in his little circle at the hotel with the custom- 
 house officer and the chief pilot, they greeted him 
 with the important news : 
 
 ' So ! you have become a pietist ! ' 
 
 The postmaster parried the thrust with a jest, 
 swore emphatically that it was untrue, and as a 
 proof emptied his glass more thoroughly than 
 usual. 
 
 " But you have been there." 
 
 " I was curious." 
 
 "Well, what did they say? " 
 
 The postmaster's face darkened, and as they 
 continued to jest it occurred to him that it was 
 cowardly and contemptible to mock at what in 
 his opinion did not deserve mockery. Therefore 
 he said seriously and decidedly : ' ' Leave me in 
 peace ! I am not a pietist, but I think highly of 
 them." 
 
 That was tantamount to a confession, and like 
 an iron curtain something fell between him 
 and his friends. The expression of their faces
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 17 
 
 changed, and they seemed all at once strange to 
 him. It was the most curious experience he had 
 had, and it was painful at the same time. 
 
 He kept away for a few days and seemed to be 
 in an introspective mood. After that, by degrees, 
 he resumed his old relations to them, came again 
 to the hotel, and was gradually the same as be- 
 fore, but not quite. For he had " pricked up 
 his ears " as the phrase goes. 
 
 The Saturday evening tete-a-tete were resumed 
 as before. Now that the postmaster had become 
 more serious, and showed interest in the deeper 
 things of life, the doctor considered the time had 
 come to communicate to him some of the stock 
 of observations which he had made on human 
 life, without any reference to his own particular 
 experience. It was reported that he had been 
 married and had children but no one knew exactly 
 the facts of the case. 
 
 After he had satisfied himself that the post- 
 master liked being read to aloud, he ventured 
 to suggest to him that they should spend the 
 Saturday evenings in this higher form of recrea- 
 tion, after they had first exchanged opinions on 
 the questions of the day, as suggested by the 
 events of the week. The subject-matter read 
 would then provide occasion for further explan- 
 ations and expressions of thought. 
 
 B
 
 18 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 Accordingly, on Saturday evening after 
 supper, while the weather outside was cold and 
 wet, they sat in the best room of the doctor's 
 house. After searching for some time in a cup- 
 board the doctor fished out a manuscript ; at the 
 last moment he hesitated perhaps because it was 
 autobiographical. In order to give himself 
 courage he began with some preliminary 
 remarks. 
 
 :< I don't think that, in your recollection, I 
 have expressed my views on a certain question 
 the most important one of our time. This ques- 
 tion, which touches the deepest things in life, and 
 is treated most superficially because it is taken 
 up in a spirit of partisanship. ... I mean " 
 
 ' ' Never mind ! I know ! ' 
 
 ' You are afraid of it, but I am not, for it is no 
 question for me, but a riddle or an insoluble prob- 
 lem. You know that there are insoluble problems 
 whose insolubility can be proved, but still men 
 continue to investigate the unsearchable." 
 
 * ' Come to the point ! Let us argue afterwards. ' ' 
 
 ' ' And they have tried to make laws to regulate 
 the behaviour of married people to each other; 
 that is as though one should lay down rules for 
 forming a friendship or falling in love. Well and 
 good ! I will tell you a story or two, and then 
 we shall see whether the matter comes under
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 19 
 
 the head of consideration at all, or whether the 
 usual laws of thought apply in this case." 
 
 "Very well." 
 
 ' One thing more. Don't think because 
 quarantine is mentioned in the story that it is my 
 story. That is buried deeper. Now we will 
 begin."
 
 THE DOCTOR'S FIRST STORY
 
 THE DOCTOR'S FIRST STORY 
 I 
 
 THEY had gone off, taken the almost matter-of- 
 course flight. An outcry rang through their 
 social circle; people pressed their hands to the 
 region of their heart, shuddered, lamented, con- 
 demned, according as each had figured to him 
 or herself the terrible tragedy which had been 
 played; two hearts had been torn asunder, two 
 families raged against each other; there was a 
 lonely husband and a deserted child; a desolate 
 home, a career destroyed, entangled affairs which 
 could not be put straight, and broken friend- 
 ships. Two men were sitting in a restaurant and 
 discussing the affair. 
 
 " But why did they run away? I think it 
 disgusting ! ' : 
 
 ' ' On the contrary ! I consider that ordinary 
 decency requires that they should leave the field 
 to the irreproachable husband; then at any rate 
 they need not meet in the streets. Besides, it is 
 more honest to be divorced than to form an illicit 
 tie." 
 
 ' ' But why could they not keep their faith and 
 23
 
 24 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 vows ? We for our part hold out for life through 
 grief and joy." 
 
 'Yes, and how does it look afterwards? 
 Like an old bird's-nest in autumn ! Other times, 
 other manners." 
 
 " But it is terrible in any case." 
 
 " Not least for the runaways. Now it will be 
 the turn of the man who took all the consequences 
 on himself. He will be paid out." 
 
 "And so will she." 
 
 The story was as follows. The now divorced 
 married pair had met three years before in a 
 watering-place, and passed through all the stages 
 of being in love in the normal way. They dis- 
 covered, as usual, that they had been born for 
 the special purpose of meeting each other and 
 wandering through life hand in hand. In order 
 to be worthy of her he gave up all doubtful habits 
 and refined his language and his morals. She 
 seemed to him an angel sent by God to open his 
 eyes and to point him upwards. He overcame the 
 usual difficulties regarding the publishing of the 
 banns, convinced that those very difficulties were 
 placed in his way in order to give him an oppor- 
 tunity of showing his courage and energy. 
 
 They read the scandalous anonymous letters 
 which generally follow engagements together,
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 25 
 
 and put them in the fire. She wept, it is true, 
 over the wickedness of men, but he said the pur- 
 poj>e of it was to test their faith in each other. 
 
 The period of their betrothal was one long 
 intoxication. He declared that he did not need 
 to drink any more, for her presence made him 
 literally drunk. Once in a way they felt the 
 weirdness of the solitude which surrounded them, 
 for their friends had given them up, considering 
 themselves superfluous. 
 
 ' Why do people avoid us ? " she asked one 
 evening as they walked outside the town. 
 
 "Because," he answered, "men run away 
 when they see happiness." 
 
 They did not notice that they themselves 
 avoided intercourse with others, as they actually 
 did. He, especially, showed a real dread of meet- 
 ing his old bachelor friends, for they seemed 
 to him like enemies, and he saw their sceptical 
 grimaces, which were only too easy to interpret. 
 1 See ! there he is caught ! To think of the old 
 rascal letting himself be hoodwinked!" etc. 
 For the young bachelors were of the opinion then, 
 as now, that love was a piece of trickery which 
 sooner or later must be unmasked. 
 
 But the conversation of the betrothed pair 
 kept them above the banalities of everyday life, 
 and they lived, as people say rightly, above the
 
 26 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 earth. But they began to feel afraid of the soli- 
 tude which surrounded them and drove them 
 together. They tried to go among other people, 
 partly from the need of showing their happiness, 
 and partly to quiet themselves. But when after 
 the theatre they entered a restaurant, and she 
 arranged her hair at the glass in the hall, he felt 
 as though she was adorning herself for strangers. 
 And when they sat down at the table, he became 
 instantaneously silent, for her face assumed a 
 new expression which was strange to him. Her 
 glances seemed to parry the looks of strangers. 
 They both became silent, and his face wore an 
 anxious expression. It was a dismal supper, 
 and they soon left. 
 
 When they came out she asked, somewhat out 
 of humour at being disappointed of a pleasure, 
 ' ; Are you vexed with me ? ' 
 
 ; ' No, my dear, I cannot be vexed with you. 
 But I bleed inwardly when I see young fellows 
 desecrate you with their looks." So their visits 
 to the restaurant ceased. 
 
 The weeks before the marriage were spent in 
 arranging their future dwelling. They had dis- 
 cussed carpets and curtains, had interviewed 
 workmen and shopmen, and in so doing had 
 descended from their ideal heights. Now they 
 wanted to go out to get rid of these prosaic
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 27 
 
 impressions. So they went, but with that 
 ominous silence when the heads of a pair feel 
 empty and someone seems to walk between them. 
 He tried to rally himself and put her in good 
 spirits but unsuccessfully. 
 
 ' I hang too heavily upon you," she said, and 
 let go of his arm. He did not answer, for he really 
 felt some relief. That annoyed her and she drew 
 nearer the wall. The conversation was at an end, 
 and they soon found themselves before her door. 
 ' Good night," she said curtly. 
 
 " Good night," he replied with equal curtness, 
 and they parted obviously to their mutual relief. 
 This time there was no kiss in the passage and he 
 did not wait outside the glass door to watch her 
 slender figure move gracefully up the first flight 
 of stairs. 
 
 He went down the street with an elastic gait 
 and drawing a deep breath of relief. He felt 
 released from something oppressive, which never- 
 theless had been charming for three months. 
 Pulling himself together, he mentally picked up 
 the dropped threads of a past which now seemed 
 strong and sincere. He hurried on, his ego 
 exulted, and both his arms, as they swung, felt 
 like wings. 
 
 That the affair was over he felt no doubt, but 
 he saw no reason for it, and with wideawake
 
 28 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 consciousness confronted a fact which he unhesi- 
 tatingly accepted. When he came near his door 
 he met an old friend whom, without further ado, 
 he took by the arm, and invited to share his 
 simple supper and to talk. His friend looked 
 astonished, but followed him up the stairs. 
 
 They ate and drank, smoked and chatted till 
 midnight, discussing every variety of topic, old 
 reminiscences and affairs of State, the Reichstag 
 and political economy. There was not a word 
 regarding his betrothal and marriage, or even an 
 allusion to them. It was a very enjoyable even- 
 ing and he seemed to have gone back three months 
 in his life. He noticed that his voice assumed a 
 more manly tone, that he spoke his thoughts 
 straight out as they came, without having to take 
 the trouble to round off the corners of strong 
 words to emphasise some expressions, and soften 
 down others in order not to give offence. He felt 
 as though he had found himself again, thrown off 
 a strait-jacket, and laid aside a mask. He accom- 
 panied his friend downstairs to open the house- 
 door. 
 
 ' Well, you will be married in eight days," said 
 the latter with the usual sceptical grimace. It 
 was as though he had pressed a button and the 
 door slammed to in answer. 
 
 When he came to his room, he felt seized with
 
 FAIIl HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 29 
 
 disgust ; he took the things off the table, cleared 
 up, swept the room, and then became conscious 
 of what he had lost, and how low he had sunk. 
 
 He felt he had been unfaithful to his betrothed, 
 because he had given his soul to another, even 
 though that other was a man. He had lost some- 
 thing better than that which he thought he had 
 gained. What he had found again was merely 
 his old selfish, inconsiderate, comfortable, every- 
 day ego, with its coarseness and uncleanness, 
 which his friend liked because it suited his own. 
 
 And now it was all over, and the link broken 
 for ever ! The great solitude would resume its 
 sway, the ugly bachelor life begin again. It did 
 not occur to him to sit down and write a letter, 
 for he felt it would be useless. Therefore he tried 
 to weary himself in order to obtain sleep, soaked 
 his whole head in cold water, and so went to bed. 
 The little ceremony of winding up his watch 
 made, to-night, a peculiar impression on him. 
 Everything had to be renewed at night, even 
 time itself. Perhaps her love only needed a 
 night's rest in order to recommence. 
 
 When he awoke the following morning, the sun 
 shone into the room. An indescribable feeling 
 of quietness had taken possession of him, and he 
 felt that life was good as it was, yes, better to-day 
 than usual, for his soul felt at home again after
 
 30 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 a long excursion. He dressed himself and went 
 to his office, opened his letters, read the news- 
 paper, and felt quite calm all the time. But this 
 unnatural calm began at last to make him uneasy. 
 He felt an increasing nervousness and a feverish- 
 ness over his whole body. The vacuum began 
 to be filled again with her soul ; the electric band 
 had been stretched, and the stream cut off, but 
 it was still there ; there had only been a break in 
 the current, and now all the recollections rushed 
 upon him, all their beautiful and great experi- 
 ences, all the elevated feelings and great 
 thoughts which they had amassed together, all 
 the dream-world in which they had lived, so un- 
 like the present world of prose where they now 
 found themselves. 
 
 With a feeling of despair he betook himself to 
 his correspondence in order to conceal his emo- 
 tions, and began to answer letters with calmness, 
 order, and clearness. Offers were accepted on 
 certain conditions, and declined on definite 
 grounds. He went into questions of coffee and 
 sugar, exchange prices and accounts with unusual 
 clearness and decision. 
 
 A clerk brought him a letter, which he saw at 
 once was from her. 
 
 ' The messenger waits for an answer," he said. 
 
 Without looking up from his desk, the
 
 FAIE HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 31 
 
 merchant had at once decided and replied : 
 "He needn't wait." 
 
 In that moment he had said to himself : " Ex- 
 planations, reproaches, accusations how can 
 I answer such things? " 
 
 And the letter lay unopened while his business 
 correspondence went on with stormy celerity. 
 
 When his fiancee had parted from him on the 
 previous evening her first emotion had been anger 
 anger to think that he, the merchant, had 
 dared to despise her. She herself belonged to an 
 official's family and had dreamt of playing a role 
 in society. His warm and faithful affection had 
 made her gradually forget this. Since he was 
 never weary of telling her what an ennobling 
 influence she exercised on his life, and since she 
 herself perceived how he became refined and 
 beautiful under her hand, she felt herself to be a 
 higher being. His steady veneration kindled her 
 self-esteem and she grew and blossomed in the 
 sunshine which his love spread around her. When 
 that was suddenly extinguished, it grew cold and 
 dark around her; she felt herself dwindle down 
 to her original insignificance, shrivel and dis- 
 appear. This discovery that she had been the 
 victim of an error and that his love was the cause 
 of her new life and the enlargement of her
 
 32 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 personality, aroused her hatred against the man 
 who had given her such clear proof that her exist- 
 ence depended on him and on his love. Now that 
 he was no longer her lover, he became the trades- 
 man whom she despised. 
 
 ' ' A fellow who sells coffee and sugar ! ' ' she 
 said to herself, as she fell asleep, " I could 
 change him for a better one." 
 
 But when she awoke after a good night's sleep, 
 she felt alarmed at the disgrace of being given up. 
 A broken engagement, after two offers, would 
 always cast a shadow over her life and make it 
 difficult to procure another fiance*. 
 
 In a spiteful mood she sat down to write the 
 letter, in which in a lofty, insulting tone she 
 demanded an explanation, and at the same time 
 asked him to come and see her. 
 
 When the messenger returned with the news 
 that there was no answer she fell in a rage, and 
 prepared to go out. She intended to find him in 
 his office, where she had never yet been, and 
 before the eyes of his clerks throw his ring on the 
 ground to show how deeply she despised him. 
 So she went. 
 
 She stood outside the door and knocked. But 
 since no one opened or answered she entered and 
 stood in the hall. Through the glass pane of the 
 inner door she saw her betrothed bending over
 
 FAIE HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 33 
 
 the large ledger, his face intent and serious. She 
 had never seen him at work before. And when 
 at work every man, even the most insignificant, is 
 imposing. Sacred work, which makes a man 
 what he is, invested his appearance with the 
 dignity of concentrated strength, and she was 
 seized with a feeling of respect for him which she 
 could not throw off. 
 
 Just then he was inspecting in the ledger the 
 entries of the expenses of furnishing their house. 
 
 They had absorbed his savings during the ten 
 years he had been in business, and though not 
 petty-minded, he thought with sorrow and bitter- 
 ness, how they were all thrown away. He sighed 
 and looked up in order not to see the tell-tale 
 figures. Then, all of a sudden, he noticed behind 
 the glass pane of the door, like a crayon drawing 
 in a frame, a pale face and two large eyes full of 
 an expression of pain and sympathy. He rose and 
 stood reverently, mute in his great, virile grief, 
 interrogative and trembling. Then he saw in her 
 looks how the lost love had returned, and with 
 that all was said. 
 
 When after a while they were walking past 
 Skeppsholm, bright with their recovered happi- 
 ness, he asked : " What happened to us yester- 
 day? ' (He said " us " for he did not wish to 
 raise the question whose fault it was.) 
 
 o
 
 34 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 ' I don't know ; I cannot explain it ; but it was 
 the most terrible experience I have had. We will 
 never do it again ! ' ' 
 
 "No! we will never do it again. And now, 
 Ebb a, it is for our whole lives, you and I ! J: 
 
 She pressed his arm, fully convinced that after 
 this fiery trial, nothing in the world could separate 
 them, so far as it depended on themselves. 
 
 n 
 
 And they were married. But instead of hiding 
 their happiness in their beautiful clean home, 
 they set out on a journey among strange, indiffe- 
 rent, curious, and even hostile people. Then 
 they went from hotel to hotel, were stared at at 
 tables d'hote, got headaches in museums, and in 
 the evening were dumb with fatigue and put out 
 of humour by mishaps. 
 
 Torn away from his work and his surroundings, 
 the industrious man found it difficult to collect 
 himself. When his thoughts went back to the 
 business matters which he had left in the hands 
 of others, he was inattentive and tiresome. They 
 both longed for home, but were ashamed to 
 return and to be received with ridicule. 
 
 The first week they occupied the time by talk-
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 35 
 
 ing over the recollections of their engagement; 
 during the second week they discussed the 
 journeys of the first. They never lived in the 
 present but in the past. When there was an inter- 
 val of dullness or silence he had always comforted 
 her with the thought that their intercourse would 
 be easier when they had amassed a store of 
 common memories, and had learnt to avoid each 
 other's antipathies. Meanwhile, out of considera- 
 tion, they had borne with these and suppressed 
 their own peculiarities and weaknesses as well- 
 brought-up people usually do. This led to a 
 feeling of restraint and being on one's guard 
 which was exhausting ; and the time had come for 
 making important discoveries. Since he pos- 
 sessed more self-control than she did, he was 
 careful not to say too much, but concealed one 
 inclination and habit after another, while she 
 revealed all hers. As he loved her, he wished to 
 be agreeable, and therefore learned to be silent. 
 The result was that with all her inherited habits, 
 peculiarities, and prejudices she had so insinuated 
 herself into his life that he began to feel himself 
 attenuated and annihilated. 
 
 One evening the young wife was seized with a 
 sudden desire to praise her sister, a hateful 
 coquette, whom her husband disliked because 
 she had tried, from selfish motives, to break their
 
 engagement. He listened to his wife in respectful 
 silence, now and then murmuring an indistinct 
 assent. At last his wife's praise of her sister 
 mounted to a paean, and though he thought her 
 affection for her relatives a fine trait in her 
 character, he could not entirely place himself in 
 her skin nor see with her eyes. So he took refuge 
 in the kind of silence which is more eloquent than 
 plain words. This silence was accompanied by a 
 gnawing of the lips and a violent perspiration. 
 All the words and opinions he had suppressed 
 found mute expression in these movements of his 
 lips he merely ' ' marked time * ' as actors say 
 and the breaths which were not used in forming 
 words, he emitted through his nose. Simultane- 
 ously the pores of his skin opened as so many 
 safety-valves for his suppressed emotions, and it 
 became really unpleasant to have him at the table. 
 
 The young wife did not conceal her annoyance, 
 for she feared no revenge. She made an ugly 
 gesture, which always ill becomes a woman; she 
 held her nose with both fingers, looking around 
 to those present as if to ask whether she was not 
 right ! 
 
 Her husband became pale, rose, and went out. 
 Several people were sitting close by who wit- 
 nessed the unpleasant scene. When he came out 
 on the streets of the foreign town, he unbuttoned
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 37 
 
 his waistcoat and breathed freely. And then his 
 thoughts took their own course ruthlessly. 
 
 ' I am becoming a hypocrite simply out of 
 consideration for her. One lie is piled up on 
 another, and some day it will all come down with 
 a crash. What a coarse woman she is ! And it 
 was from her that I believed I should learn and 
 be refined into a higher being. It is all optical 
 delusion and deceit. All this ' love ' is merely a 
 piece of trickery on the part of nature to dazzle 
 one's sight." 
 
 He tried to picture to himself what was 
 now happening in the dining-room. She would 
 naturally weep and appeal with her eyes to those 
 present as if to ask whether she was not very 
 unfortunate with such a husband. It was indeed 
 her habit so to appeal with her eyes, and when he 
 expected an answer from her, she always turned 
 her looks on those around as if asking for help 
 against her oppressor. He was always treated as 
 a tyrant, although out of pure kindness he had 
 made himself her slave. There was no help for it ! 
 
 He found himself down by the harbour, and 
 caught sight of the swimming-baths that was 
 just what he wanted. Quickly lie plunged into 
 the sea, and swam far out into the darkness. His 
 soul, tortured by mosquito-stings and nettle- 
 pricks, was able to cool itself, and he felt how be
 
 38 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 left a wake of dirt behind him. He lay on his 
 back and gazed at the starry sky, but at the same 
 moment heard a whistling and splashing behind 
 him. It was a great steamer coming in, and he 
 had to get out of the way to save his life. He 
 made for the lamp-lit shore and saw the hotel with 
 all its lights. 
 
 When he had dressed, he felt an unmeasured 
 sorrow sorrow over his lost paradise. At the 
 same time all bitterness had passed away. 
 
 In this mood he entered his room and found 
 his wife seated at the writing-table. She rose and 
 threw herself into his arms without a word of 
 apology; naturally enough he did not desire it, 
 and she had no idea of having done wrong. 
 
 They sat down and wept together over their 
 vanished love, for that it had gone there was no 
 doubt. But it had gone without their will, and 
 they sorrowed over it, as over some dear friend 
 which they had not killed but could not save. 
 They were confronted by a fact before which they 
 were helpless ; love the good genius who magnifies 
 every trifle, rejuvenates what is old, beautifies 
 what is ugly, had abandoned them, and life 
 stretched before them in naked monotony. 
 
 But it did not occur to them that they would 
 be separated or were separated, for their grief 
 itself was an experience they shared, which held
 
 FAIR EAVEff AND FOXTL STRAND 39 
 
 them together. They were also united in a 
 common grudge against Fate, which had so 
 deceived them in their tenderest emotions. In 
 their great dejection they were not capable of 
 such a strong feeling as hate. They only felt 
 resentment and indignation at Fate, which was 
 their scapegoat and lightning-conductor. 
 
 They had never talked so harmoniously and 
 so intimately before, and while their voices 
 assumed a more affectionate tone, they formed 
 a firm resolve to go home and commence their 
 domestic life. He talked himself into a state of 
 enthusiasm at the thought of home, where one 
 could exclude all evil influences, and where peace 
 and harmony would reign. She also dilated on 
 the same topic with similar warmth till they had 
 forgotten their sorrow. And when they had 
 forgotten it, they smiled as before, and behold ! 
 love was again there, and not dead at all; its 
 death was also a delusion and so was all their; 
 grief. 
 
 m 
 
 He had realised his youthful dream of a wife 
 and a home, and for eight days the young wife 
 also thought that her dream had come true. But 
 on the ninth day she wanted to go out.
 
 40 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 "Where? " he asked. 
 
 " Say, yourself!" 
 
 No, she must say. He proposed the opera, but 
 Wagner was being performed there, and she 
 could not bear him. The theatre? No, there they 
 had Maeterlinck, and that was silly. He did not 
 wish to go to an operetta, for they always ridi- 
 culed what he now regarded as sacred. Nor did 
 he like the circus, where there were only horses 
 and queer women. 
 
 So the discussion went on and they privately 
 discovered a great quantity of divergences in 
 tastes and principles. In order to please her, he 
 proposed an operetta, but she would not accept 
 the sacrifice. He suggested that they should 
 give a party, but then they discovered that there 
 was no one to invite, for they had separated from 
 their friends, and their friends from them. 
 
 So they sat there, still in harmony, and con- 
 sidered their destiny together, without having 
 yet begun to blame each other. They stayed at 
 home, and felt bored. 
 
 Next day, the same scene was repeated. He 
 now saw that his happiness was at stake ; there- 
 fore he took courage, and said in a friendly way 
 but decidedly, " Dress yourself and we will go to 
 an operetta." She beamed, put on her new 
 dress, and was quickly ready. When he saw her
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 41 
 
 so happy and pretty, he felt a stab in his heart, 
 and thought to himself, ' ' Now she brightens up, 
 when she can dress for others and not for me." 
 When he then conducted her to the theatre, he 
 felt as though he were escorting a stranger, for 
 her thoughts were already in the auditorium, 
 which was her stage, where she wished to appear, 
 and where she could now appear under her 
 husband's escort without being insulted. 
 
 Since they could already divine each other's 
 thoughts, this alienation, while they were on the 
 way, changed into something like hostility. They 
 longed to be in the theatre in order to find some- 
 thing to divert their emotions, though he felt as 
 though he were going to an execution. 
 
 When they came to the ticket-office there were 
 no tickets left. 
 
 Then her face changed, and when she looked 
 at him, and thought she saw an expression of 
 satisfaction, which possibly was latent there, she 
 broke out, " That pleases you? " 
 
 He wished to deny it, but could not, for it was 
 true. On the way home he felt as though he were 
 dragging a corpse with him, and that a hostile 
 one. 
 
 The fact that she had discovered his very 
 natural thought, which he had self-denyingly 
 repressed, hurt him like a rudeness, for one has
 
 42 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 no right to punish the thoughts of another. He 
 would have borne it more easily if there had been 
 no tickets left, for he was already accustomed to 
 be a scapegoat. But now he lamented over his 
 lost happiness, and that he had not the power to 
 amuse her. 
 
 When she observed that he was not angry, but 
 only sad, she despised him. They came home in 
 ominous silence ; she went straight to her bedroom 
 and shut the door. He sat down in the dining- 
 room, where he lit the lamps and candles, for the 
 darkness seemed to be closing round him. 
 
 Then he heard a cry from the bedroom, the cry 
 of a child, but of a grown one. When he came 
 in he saw a sight which tore his heart. She was 
 on her knees, her hands stretched towards him, 
 wailing as she wept, " Don't be angry with me, 
 don't be hard; you put out the light round me, 
 you stifle me with your severity ; I am a child that 
 trusts life and must have sunshine." 
 
 He could find no answer, for she seemed sin- 
 cere. And he could not defend himself, for that 
 meant arraigning her thoughts, which he also 
 could not do. 
 
 Dumb with despair, he went into his room and 
 felt crushed. He had pillaged her youth, shut her 
 up, torn out her joy by the roots. He had not 
 the light which this tender flower needed, and
 
 FAIR EATEN AND FOUL STRAND 43 
 
 she withered under his hand. These self- 
 reproaches broke down all the self-confidence he 
 had hitherto possessed; he felt unworthy of her 
 love, or of any woman's, and felt himself a 
 murderer who had killed her happiness. 
 
 After he had suffered all these pangs of con- 
 science he began to examine himself calmly and 
 with sober common sense. 
 
 "What have I done?' 3 he asked himself. 
 " What have I done to her? All the good that 
 I could; I have done her will in everything. I 
 did not wish to go out in the evening, when I had 
 come home after the work of the day, and I did 
 not wish to see an operetta. An operetta was 
 formerly a matter of indifference to me, but now 
 it is distasteful, since through my love for her 
 I have entered another sphere of emotion which 
 I do not hesitate to call a higher one. How foolish 
 of me ! I had the idea that she would draw me 
 out of the mire, but she draws me down ; she has 
 drawn me down the whole time. Then it is not 
 she but my love which draws upward, for there 
 is a higher and a lower. Yes, the sage was right 
 who said, ' Men marry to have a home to come to 
 to, women marry to have a home to go out of.' 
 Home is not for the woman but for the man and 
 the child. All women complain of being shut up 
 at home, and so does mine, although she goes
 
 44 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 about the whole morning paying visits, and 
 haunting cafes and shops." 
 
 He began to work his way out of this slough of 
 despond, and found himself on the side where 
 the fault was not. But again he saw the heart- 
 rending spectacle of his young wife on her knees 
 begging him, with outstretched hands, not to kill 
 her youth and brightness with his severity. Since 
 it was foreign to his nature to act a part, he felt 
 sure that she was not doing so, and felt again like 
 a criminal, so that he was tempted to commit 
 suicide, for the mere fact of his existence crushed 
 her happiness. 
 
 But again his sense of justice was aroused, for 
 he had no right to take the blame on himself when 
 he did not deserve it. He was not hard but he 
 was serious, and it was just his seriousness which 
 had made the deepest impression on the young 
 girl and decided her to prefer him to other frivo- 
 lous young men. He had not wished to kill her 
 joy; on the contrary he had done everything in 
 his power to procure for her the quiet joys of 
 domesticity ; he had not even wished to deny her 
 the ambiguous pleasure of the operetta, but had 
 sacrificed himself and accompanied her thither. 
 What she had said was therefore simply nonsense. 
 And yet her grief had been so deep and sincere. 
 What was the meaning of it ?
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 45 
 
 Then came the answer. It was the girl's leave- 
 taking of youth which was inevitable. It was 
 therefore as natural as it was beautiful this out- 
 break of despair at the brevity of spring. But he 
 was not to blame for it, and if his wife perhaps 
 in a year was to become a mother, it was now the 
 right time to bid farewell to girlish joys in order 
 to prepare for the higher joys of maternity. 
 
 He had, therefore, nothing to reproach himself 
 with, and yet he did reproach himself with every- 
 thing. With a quick resolve, he shook off his 
 depression and went to his wife, firmly deter- 
 mining not to say a word in his defence, for that 
 meant extinguishing her love, but simply to invite 
 her to reconciliation without a reckoning. 
 
 He found his wife on the point of being weary 
 of solitude, and she would have welcomed the 
 society of anyone, even that of her husband, 
 rather than be quite alone. 
 
 Then they came to an agreement to give a 
 party and to invite his friends and hers, who 
 would be sure to come. This evening their need 
 for domestic peace and comfort was so mutual 
 that they agreed, without any difficulty, who 
 should be invited and who not. 
 
 They closed the day by drinking a bottle of 
 champagne. The sparkling drink loosened her 
 tongue and now she took the opportunity to make
 
 46 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 him gentle and jesting reproaches for his egotism 
 and discourtesy towards his wife. She looked so 
 pretty as she raised herself on tiptoe above him, 
 and she seemed so much greater and nobler when 
 she had rolled all her faults upon him, that he 
 thought it a pity to pull her down, and therefore 
 went to sleep laden with all the defects and short- 
 comings which he had taken on himself. 
 
 When he awoke the next morning he lay still 
 in order to think over the events of the past 
 evening. And now he despised himself for 
 having kept silence and refrained from defending 
 himself. Now he perceived how the whole of 
 their life together was built upon his silence and 
 the suppression of his personality. For if he had 
 spoken yesterday, she would have gone she 
 always threatened to go to her mother when he 
 " ill-treated " her, and she called it " ill-treat- 
 ment " every time that he was tired of making 
 himself out worse than he was. Here they were 
 building on falsity, and the building would col- 
 lapse some day when he ventured on a criticism 
 or personal remark regarding her. 
 
 Reverence, worship, blind obedience that 
 was the price of her love he must either pay it, 
 or go without it. 
 
 The party took place. The husband, as a good 
 host, did all he could to efface himself and bring
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 47 
 
 his wife into prominence. His friends, who were 
 gentlemen, behaved to her in their turn with all 
 the courtesy which they felt was due to a young 
 wife. 
 
 After supper music was proposed. There was 
 a piano in the house, but the wife could not play, 
 and the husband did not want to. A young 
 doctor undertook the task, and since he had to 
 choose his own programme, he had resort to his 
 favourite, Wagner. The mistress of the house 
 did not know what he was playing but did not 
 like the deep seriousness of it. When at last the 
 thunder ceased, her husband sat uneasily there, 
 for he could surmise what was coming. 
 
 As a ladylike hostess, she had to say something. 
 She thought a simple ' ' thanks ' ' insufficient, and 
 asked what the music was. 
 
 Then it came out Wagner! 
 
 Her husband felt the look which he feared, 
 which told him that he was a traitor who perhaps 
 had wished to entice her to praise in ignorance 
 "the worst music which she knew." During 
 the time of their engagement she had certainly 
 listened attentively to her fiance's long speeches 
 in defence of Wagner, but immediately after their 
 marriage, she had declared openly that she could 
 not bear him. Therefore her husband had never 
 played to her, and she feigned not to know that
 
 48 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 he could play. But now she felt insidiously sur- 
 prised, and her husband received the before- 
 mentioned look which told him what he had to 
 expect. 
 
 The guests had gone, and husband and wife 
 sat there alone. 
 
 In his father's house he had learnt never to 
 speak anything but good of departed guests, but 
 rather to be silent. She had also heard something 
 of the kind, but here she felt no need of restraint. 
 So now she began to criticise his friends; they 
 were, to put it briefly, tedious. 
 
 He gnawed his cigar in silence, for to dispute 
 about likings and taste in this case would be 
 unreasonable. 
 
 But she also considered them discourteous. 
 She had been told that young men should say 
 pleasant things. 
 
 ' ' Did they venture to say anything unpleas- 
 ant ? ' J he asked, feeling uneasy lest anyone 
 should have forgotten himself. 
 
 "No, not exactly/' 
 
 Then came a shower of petty criticisms ; some- 
 one's tie was not straight, another had too long 
 a nose, another drawled, and then, "the fellow 
 who played Wagner ! " 
 
 " You are not kind," said her husband with a 
 lame attempt to defend his friends.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 49 
 
 "Yes! and the friends you trust in! You 
 should only have heard and seen the words and 
 looks which I heard and saw. They are false to 
 
 you." 
 
 He continued to smoke and kept silence, but 
 he thought how low he had sunk to deny his old 
 and tried friends ; how despicable it was to plead 
 for forgiveness with his eyes for the performance 
 of Wagner. His thoughts ran parallel with her 
 loud chatter, and he spoke them in silence. 
 
 ' You despise my friends because they do not 
 court their friend's wife, do not pay her little 
 compliments on her figure and dress; and you 
 hate them because you feel how my strength 
 grows in the circle of their sympathies for me. 
 You hate them as you hate me, and would hate 
 anyone else who was your husband." 
 
 She must have felt the effect of these thoughts, 
 for her volubility slackened, and when he cast 
 a glance at her, she seemed to have shrunk to- 
 gether. Immediately afterwards she rose, on the 
 pretext that she felt freezing. As a matter of 
 fact, she was trembling and had red flames on 
 her cheeks. 
 
 That night he observed for the first time that 
 he had at his side an ugly old woman who had 
 enamelled her face with bright cosmetics and 
 plaited her hair like a peasant woman.
 
 50 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 She did not bother herself to appear at her 
 best before him but was already free and easy 
 and cynical enough to make herself repugnant by 
 disclosing the unbeautiful secrets of the toilet. 
 
 Then for a moment he was released from his 
 enchantment, and continued to think of flight till 
 sleep had pity on him. 
 
 A couple of weeks passed in dull silence. He 
 could not get rid of the thought that it was a pity 
 about her, and when she was bored, it was his 
 fault for the moment, because he was her hus- 
 band for the moment. To seek for others' 
 society was now no longer possible, since his 
 friends had been rejected, and she had no more 
 pleasure in her own. They tried to go out each 
 his own way but always returned home. 
 
 " You find it hard to be away from me, in spite 
 of all! " she said. 
 
 "And you? " he answered. 
 
 She remained compliant and indifferent, no 
 longer angry, so that they could talk, i.e. he 
 ventured to answer. 
 
 " My jailor ! " she said on one occasion. 
 
 " Who is in jail, you or I? " he answered. 
 
 When they perceived that they were each 
 other's prisoners, they smiled at the relationship 
 and began to examine the witchcraft of which 
 they were victims. They went back in memory
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 61 
 
 and lived over again the engagement period and 
 their wedding journey. Consequently they lived 
 always in the past, never in the present. 
 
 Then came the great moment he had waited for 
 as a liberation the announcement of her expect- 
 ing to be a mother. Her longings would now 
 have an object, and she would look forward 
 instead of backward. But even here he had 
 miscalculated. 
 
 Now she was angry with him, for her beauty 
 would wither away, and it was no use his trying 
 to comfort her by saying she would get up 
 rejuvenated with recovered beauty, and that the 
 crowning happiness awaited her. She treated 
 him like a murderer, and could not look at him 
 for his mere scent aroused her dislike. In order to 
 obtain light on the matter, he asked their doctor. 
 The latter laughed and explained to him that in 
 such cases women always thought they smelt 
 something; this was either pure imagination 
 or a physical perversion of the olfactory nerve. 
 
 When at last this stage was over, a certain calm 
 succeeded which he was short-sighted enough to 
 enjoy. Since he was now sure of having his wife 
 in the house he perhaps showed that he was happy 
 and thankful for it. But he should not have done 
 so, for now she saw the matter from a new point 
 of view.
 
 52 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 
 
 ' Ah ! now you think you have me fast, but 
 just wait till I am up again ! " 
 
 The look which accompanied the threat gave 
 him to understand what would happen. Now he 
 began a battle with himself whether he should 
 await the arrival of the child or go away first, in 
 order to avoid the wrench of parting from it. 
 
 Since the married pair had entered into such 
 a close relationship that one could hear the 
 thoughts of the other, he could keep no secrets 
 from her which she did not seize upon forthwith. 
 
 1 ' I know well enough that you contemplate 
 deserting us and casting us on the street." 
 
 " That is strange/' he remarked; " it is you 
 who have threatened the whole time to go off with 
 the child, as soon as it came. So whatever I do is 
 wrong; if I stay you go, and then I am both un- 
 happy and ridiculous ; if I go you are the martyr, 
 and I am unhappy and a scoundrel to boot ! That 
 comes of having to do with women ! ' : 
 
 How they got through the nine months was to 
 him a puzzle. The last part of the time was the 
 most tolerable, for she had begun to love the 
 unborn child, and love imparted to her a higher 
 beauty than she had before. But when he told 
 her so, she did not believe him, and when she 
 observed that he was lulling himself to sleep with 
 dreams of perpetual happiness by her side she
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 53 
 
 broke out again, saying : ' ' You think you have 
 got me safe now." 
 
 " My dear," he answered, "when we vowed 
 to each other to be man and wife, I believed that 
 I would belong to you and you to me, and I hoped 
 that we should hold together so that the child 
 should be born in a home, and be brought up by 
 its father and mother." 
 
 And so on ad infinitum. 
 
 The child came, and the mother's joy was 
 boundless. Ennui had disappeared and the man 
 breathed freely, but he should have done so more 
 imperceptibly. For two sharp eyes saw it and 
 two keen looks said : ' ' You think that I am tied 
 by the child!" 
 
 On the third day the little one had lost the 
 charm of novelty and was handed over to a nurse. 
 Then dressmakers were summoned. Now he 
 knew what was coming. From that hour he went 
 about like a man condemned to death, waiting 
 for his execution. He packed two travelling-bags 
 which he hid in his wardrobe, ready to fly at the 
 given signal. 
 
 The signal was given two days after his wife 
 got up. She had put on a dress of an extremely 
 showy cut and of the colour called c ' lamp-shade." 
 
 He took her out for a walk and suffered un- 
 speakably when he saw that she whom he loved,
 
 54 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 attracted a degree of attention which he found 
 obnoxious. Even the street urchins pointed with 
 their fingers at the overdressed lady. 
 
 From that day he avoided going out with 
 her. He stayed at home with the child, and 
 lamented that he had a wife who made herself 
 ridiculous. 
 
 Her next step to freedom was the riding-school. 
 Through the stable the doors to society were 
 opened for her. By means of horses one made 
 acquaintances in the upper circles. Horses and 
 dogs form the transition stage to the world from 
 which one peers down in order to be able to dis- 
 cover the pedestrians on the dusty highways. 
 The rider on horseback is six ells high instead of 
 three, and he always looks as though he wished 
 that those who walk should look up to him. The 
 stable also was her means of introduction to a 
 lieutenant who was a baron. Their hearts re- 
 sponded to each other, and since the baron was a 
 clean-natured man, he decidedly refused to go 
 through the stages of guest and friend of the 
 house. Therefore they went off together, or 
 rather, fled. 
 
 Her husband remained behind with the child.
 
 IV 
 
 The baron jumped into the Stockholm express 
 at Sodertelje where he had arranged to meet her. 
 Everything had been carefully arranged for them 
 to be alone together at last, but Fate had other 
 .designs. When the baron entered the railway 
 carriage he found his beloved sitting wedged in 
 tightly among strangers, so tightly that there was 
 no room for him. A glance in the adjoining 
 coupe showed him that it was full also, and he 
 had to stand in the corridor. Eage distorted his 
 face, and when he tried to greet her with a secret 
 and loving smile, he only showed his back teeth, 
 which she had never seen before. To make 
 matters worse, he had, in order not to be noticed, 
 put on mufti. She had never seen him in this, 
 and his spring coat looked faded, now that it was 
 autumn. Some soft summer showers in the former 
 year had caused the cloth to pucker near the 
 seams, so that it lay in many small wave-like 
 folds. Since it had been cut according to the 
 latest fashion it gave him the appearance of hav- 
 ing sloping shoulders which continued the neck 
 down to the arms with the same ignoble outlines 
 as those of a half -pint bottle. He perspired with
 
 56 FAIR HAVEK AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 rage, and a fragment of coal had settled firmly 
 on his nose. She would like to fcave jumped up 
 and with her lace handkerchief wiped away the 
 black smut but dared not. He did not like to 
 look at her for fear of displeasing her, and there- 
 fore remained standing in the corridor with his 
 back towards her. 
 
 When they reached Katrineholm they had to 
 dine if they did not wish to remain hungry till 
 evening. Here the man and the hero had to 
 show himself, and stand the ordeal or he was 
 lost. With trembling calves and puckered face he 
 followed his lady out of the train and across the 
 railway lines. Here he fell on his knee, so that 
 his hat slipped to the back of his head and 
 remained sticking there like a military cap. But 
 the position which made the latter look smart 
 did not suit the unusual hat. In a word it was not 
 his good day, and he had no luck. 
 
 When they entered the dining-saloon, they 
 looked as though they had quarrelled inwardly, 
 as though they despised each other, were 
 ashamed before each other, and mutually wished 
 themselves apart. 
 
 His nerves were entirely out of order, and 
 he could not control a single muscle. Without 
 knowing what he was doing, he pushed her for- 
 ward to the table saying, " Hurry up ! "
 
 FAI& HAVEtf AND FOUL STRAND 67 
 
 The table was already surrounded by pas- 
 sengers, who fell on the viands in scattered order 
 and therefore could not open their ranks. The 
 baron made a sally and finally succeeded in seiz- 
 ing a plate, but as he wedged in his arm to get a 
 fork, his hand encountered another hand which 
 belonged to the person he least of all wished to 
 meet just then. 
 
 It was his senior officer, a major who presided 
 at military examinations. 
 
 At the same moment a whisper passed through 
 the crowd. 
 
 They were recognised ! He stood there as 
 though naked among nettles. His neck swelled 
 so unnaturally and grew so red that his cheeks 
 seemed to form part of it. He could not under- 
 stand how people's looks could have the effect 
 of gun-bullets. He was literally fusilladed and 
 collapsed. His companion vanished from his 
 mind; he could only think of the major and the 
 military examination which might destroy his 
 future. 
 
 But she had seen and understood; she turned 
 her back on everyone and went out. She got into 
 the wrong coupe but it was empty. He came 
 afterwards and they were alone at last. 
 
 " That's a nice business, isn't it?" he hissed, 
 striking his forehead. " To think of my letting
 
 58 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 myself be enticed into such an adventure ! And 
 the major too ! Now my career is at an end ! " 
 
 That was the theme which was enlarged on 
 with variations till Linkoping. Hunger and 
 thirst both contributed their part to it. It was 
 terrible. 
 
 After Linkoping they both felt that the mutual 
 reproaches they had hitherto held back must find 
 a vent. But just at the right moment they remem- 
 bered her husband and attacked him. It was his 
 fault; he was the tyrant, the idiot of course, " a 
 fellow who played Wagner," a devil. It was 
 he who had given the major a hint, no doubt. 
 
 ' Yes, I believe you," said she with the firmest 
 conviction. 
 
 " Do you? I know it," answered the baron. 
 " They meet on the Stock Exchange, where they 
 speculate in shares together. And do you know 
 what I begin to suspect? Your husband, the 
 c wretch ' as we call him, has never loved you." 
 
 The wife considered a moment. Whether it 
 was that her husband's love was indubitable, or 
 that it was necessary to suppose that he loved her, 
 if she was to have the honour of having made a 
 fool of him enough, he must have loved her, 
 since she was so lovable. 
 
 "No! now you are unjust," she ventured to 
 say. She felt herself somewhat elevated by being
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 59 
 
 able to speak a good word of an enemy, but the 
 baron took it as a reproach against himself and 
 recommenced. 
 
 ' He loved you? He who shut you up and 
 would not accompany you to the riding-school ! 
 He " 
 
 The safety-conductor seemed used up, and 
 threatened to deflect the lightning to one side in 
 a dangerous way. So they took up a new thread 
 of conversation the question of food. Since this 
 could not be settled before Naujo, which was 
 still half a day distant, they soon dropped it 
 again. In her extremity, and carried away by 
 a torrent of thoughts and emotions which she 
 could not resist, she hazarded a conjecture as to 
 how her child was. To this his answer was a yawn 
 which split his face like a red apple to the uvula 
 where some dark molars resembled the core of it. 
 Gradually he let himself slide down into a reclin- 
 ing attitude on the sofa, but remembering that 
 he ought to make some apology for his unseemly 
 behaviour, he yawned and said: "Excuse me, 
 but I am so sleepy.'* 
 
 Immediately afterwards he went to sleep, and 
 after a time he snored. Since she was no longer 
 under the influence of his looks and words, she 
 could reflect quietly again, see who her travel- 
 ling companion was, and began, involuntarily,
 
 60 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 to institute comparisons. Her husband had never 
 behaved like this ; he was refined compared with 
 the baron, and was always well-dressed. 
 
 The baron, who had drunk much punch the 
 day before, began now to perspire and smelt of 
 vinegar. Besides that, he always had a stable- 
 like smell about him. 
 
 She went out into the corridor, opened a 
 window, and as though released from enchant- 
 ment, she saw the whole extent of her loss and 
 the terrible nature of her position. As the spring 
 landscape swept past, a little lake with willows 
 and a cottage, she remembered vividly how she 
 had dreamt of a summer holiday with the child. 
 Then she broke into weeping, and tried to throw 
 herself out but was held back. She remained 
 standing a long time, and stamped with her feet 
 as though she wished to stop the train and make 
 it go backwards. All the time she heard his 
 snoring, like grunts from a pigsty at feeding- 
 time. And for this . . . creature, she had left 
 a good home, a beautiful child, and a husband. 
 
 The snoring ceased, and the baron began to 
 employ his recuperated thinking faculties in con- 
 sidering the situation and settling his future. He 
 did not know how to be sad; instead of that he 
 became angry. When he saw her holding her 
 handkerchief to her eyes, he got in a rage, and
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 61 
 
 took it as a personal reproach. But quarrelling 
 was tedious and unpleasant ; therefore assuming 
 a light tone, and caressing her as one might 
 a horse, he clicked with his tongue and said : 
 "Cheer up, Maja! " 
 
 Two such opposite moods, in colliding, cut each 
 other and each fell on its own side of the knife. 
 A dead silence was the result. They were no 
 longer one person, but two, irrevocably two, who 
 did not belong together. 
 
 Yet another half -day in wretchedness and bore- 
 dom; a night with changes of train in the dark- 
 ness, and at last they were in Copenhagen. There 
 they were unknown and had no need to feel 
 embarrassed. But when they entered the dining- 
 saloon, she began to pass the " searchlight " of 
 her looks, as he called it, over all those present, 
 so that when the baron looked at her he never 
 saw her eye except in profile. At last he became 
 angry and kicked her shin under the table. Then 
 she turned away and appealed with her eyes to 
 the company. She could not look at him so 
 hateful did he seem to her. Upstairs in their 
 room the corks were drawn out. They reached 
 the stage of recriminations. His spoilt career 
 was her fault . . . she had lost her child and 
 home through him. So it went on till past mid- 
 night when sleep had mercy on them :
 
 62 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 
 
 Then next morning they sat at the breakfast- 
 table, silent and ghastly to look at. She 
 remembered her honeymoon journey and very 
 much the same situation. They had nothing to 
 say to each other, and he was as tedious as her 
 husband had been. They kept silence and were 
 ashamed of being in each other's presence. 
 They were conscious of their mutual hatred, and 
 poisoned each other with nerve-poison. 
 
 At last the deliverer came. The waiter 
 approached with a telegram for the baron, who 
 opened and read it at a glance. He seemed to 
 consider, cast a calculating glance at his enemy, 
 and after a pause said : "I am recalled by the 
 commanding officer." 
 
 " And mean to leave me here? '' 
 
 He changed his resolve in a second : ' ' No, we 
 will travel back together." A plan suggested 
 itself and he told her of it. " We will sail across 
 to Landskrona ; there no one knows you, and you 
 can wait for me." 
 
 The idea of sailing had a smack of the 
 adventurous and heroic about it, and this trifle 
 outweighed all other considerations. She was 
 kindled, kindled him, and they packed at once. 
 The prospect of leaving her, for however short 
 a time, restored his courage. 
 
 Accordingly, some hours later, he took his
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 63 
 
 in a hired sailing-boat with his beloved by the 
 foresail and put off from Lange Linie like a sea- 
 robber with his bride, blustering, ostentatious 
 and gorgeous. 
 
 In order to conceal his plan he had only spoken 
 to the owner of the boat of a pleasure-trip in the 
 Sound. His intention was to telegraph from 
 Landskrona and send the money due for the boat 
 and have the boat itself towed by a steamer. 
 
 As they were putting off from shore, the boat 
 owner stood near and watched them. But when 
 he saw that they were directing their course to 
 the Island Hven, he put his hands to his mouth 
 and shouted: "Don't go too near Hven/' and 
 something else which was carried away by the 
 wind. 
 
 " Why not Hven?" asked the baron aloud. 
 ' The shore is steep, so that there are no rocks 
 under water." 
 
 ' Yes, but if he tells us so, he must have had 
 some reason for it," she objected. 
 
 "Don't talk nonsense! Look after the fore- 
 sail!" 
 
 The wind blew a light gale on the open sea, 
 and since there was a considerable distance be- 
 tween the foresail and the stern there was no need 
 for conversation, much to the baron's relief. ^ 
 
 Their course was directed towards the sputjar
 
 64 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 east corner of Hven, though at first not noticeably 
 so. But when she at last saw whither they were 
 going, she called out : " Don't steer for Hven ! ' 
 
 ' * Hold your ! ' ' answered the baron and 
 
 tacked. 
 
 After an hour's good run they had come 
 abreast of the white island and a light pressure 
 on the rudder turned the boat's prow towards 
 Landskrona, which appeared in the north. 
 
 "Saved ! " cried the steersman and lit a cigar. 
 
 At the same instant a little steamer put out 
 from Hven and made straight for the sailing- 
 boat. 
 
 " What is that steamer? " she asked. 
 
 " It is a custom-house boat," answered the 
 baron who was at home on the sea. 
 
 But now the steamer hoisted a yellow flag and 
 whistled. 
 
 " That has nothing to do with us," said the 
 baron, and kept on his course. 
 
 But the steamer took a sweep round, signalled 
 with the flag, and let off several short, sharp 
 whistles like cries of distress, increasing speed 
 at the same time. Then the baron jumped up 
 wildly at the stern as though he intended plunging 
 into the sea. He remembered the outbreak of 
 cholera at Hamburg and cried : " It is the quaran- 
 tine ! Three days ! We are lost ! '
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 65 
 
 The next moment he sat down again in his 
 place, hauling taut the main-sheet and drifting 
 before the wind, straight towards the Sound. 
 The chase began, but soon the steamer stood 
 athwart the bow of the sailing-boat, which was 
 captured. 
 
 The whole carefully-thought-out device of the 
 baron to avoid the gaze of curious eyes was de- 
 feated, and as their sailing-boat was towed into 
 the harbour of Hven, the unhappy pair were 
 saluted from the bridge by hundreds of their 
 fellow-countrymen with derisive applause and 
 peals of laughter, though the latter did not know 
 whom they were applauding. But the chagrin of 
 the captured pair was greater than the others 
 guessed, for they believed that people were ridi- 
 culing their unfortunate love affair. 
 
 To make matters worse the baron had 
 unpardonably insulted the quarantine doctor by 
 upbraiding him on board the steamer. Therefore 
 no special consideration was shown them, but 
 they were treated like all others who come from 
 a cholera-infected port. Since their incognito 
 was bound to be seen through sooner or later, 
 they went about in perpetual fear of discovery. 
 Full of suspicion, they believed every other hour 
 that they were recognised. 
 
 No one would have the patience to read the 
 
 E
 
 66 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 story of the torture of those three days. So much 
 is known, that the first day she spent in weeping 
 for her child, while he walked about the island. 
 The second day she enlarged upon the excellent 
 qualities of her husband as contrasted with the 
 execrable ones of her lover. On the third day 
 she cursed him for having taken her away, and 
 when she ended by calling him an idiot for not 
 having obeyed her own and the boat-owner's 
 advice to avoid Hven, he gave her a box on the 
 ear. ... On the fourth day when they were 
 really discovered, and newspapers arrived with 
 the whole story, they went into a crevice in the 
 rocks to hide their shame. 
 
 When at last two steamers came to fetch the 
 unfortunates, each went on board a different one. 
 And after that day they never saw nor knew each 
 other again. 
 
 It was nearly midnight when the reading was 
 ended. An interval of silence followed, but the 
 postmaster felt he must say something. ' One 
 generally says ' thanks ! " he remarked. " Mean- 
 while, after you have said all, there is not 
 much to add : I will only ask myself, you, 
 and everyone a general question : ' What is 
 love? ' " 
 
 "What is love? Answer: 'I don't know.'
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 67 
 
 Love has been called a piece of roguery on the 
 part of Nature. I don't believe that, for I know 
 that Nature has neither made itself nor can it 
 think out pieces of roguery. But if we accept 
 that proposition, we descend to zoology, and that 
 I do not wish to do. I do not share the theo- 
 retical veneration for woman which my con- 
 temporaries cherish; on the other hand, I 
 instinctively place her higher than ourselves. She 
 seems to me to be formed out of finer material 
 than we men, but I may be wrong, for she seems 
 to be furnished with more animal functions than 
 we are. If I were a theosophist, I should believe 
 she was only a kind of intermediary chrysalis stage 
 on the way to man, only a temporary manifes- 
 tation,*out of which love, i.e. man's love, creates 
 in. her possibilities of being and seeming. When 
 he finds this really lifeless form of existence and 
 breathes his immortal breath into it, he shares 
 the Creator's joy on the seventh day. The 
 process of refining, which his coarser substance 
 hindered him bringing about in his own soul, he 
 brings about in hers, and through reaction no ! 
 it is too difficult for me to explain; it is like 
 dividing an angle into three equal parts. Anyhow, 
 the fact is certain, and my story is an illustration 
 of it, that when a man is deceived in his love as 
 he always is, his whole being revolts against the
 
 68 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 government of the world, which seems to him 
 to have condescended to mock at his holiest 
 possession, the holiest thing in all creation. If 
 Providence is consonant with such deceit and 
 such coarse jesting then he discovers a devil where 
 he thought he had seen a good angel. After that 
 what shall he trust, what shall he value, at what 
 shall he not make a grimace? And when after 
 marriage the veil falls, and like Adam and Eve 
 they are naked and ashamed, then even the most 
 unbelieving is conscious of something resembling 
 the Fall. Then comes a fresh error and they 
 think they have deceived each other, which they 
 have not done. So they scourge each other for 
 crimes which neither has committed. A second 
 deception follows the first." 
 
 They were again silent. Then the postmaster 
 gave the conversation another turn and de- 
 scended to the earth. " You can guess that I, at 
 any rate, recognise the lady of your story. She 
 lives in her own little house, here on the island by 
 the shore." 
 
 ' ' Yes she does ! I know her, and I was 
 quarantine doctor at Hven when she was cap- 
 tured. Now that she is elderly she has renewed 
 her acquaintance with me, and it is from her own 
 mouth that I heard the story. She has been in 
 love countless times 1 , and declares that every time
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 69 
 
 she believed she had found the right man who had 
 been predestined for her from the foundation of 
 the world." 
 
 ' Does not reason feel its helplessness before 
 such riddles, riddles of every day? ' : 
 
 ' Yes and therefore . . . yes, next Saturday 
 you shall hear another story, and I think we 
 shall approach the riddle a little more closely, 
 i.e. we shall find its insolubility more strongly 
 proved." 
 
 ' I shall be glad to hear it. But why don't 
 you have your stories printed ? ' 
 
 " Because I have been a doctor, and a woman's 
 doctor. I have no right to reveal what I have 
 heard in my official capacity. Sometimes I 
 should like to be a writer with a prescriptive 
 right to find material for his art in men's lives and 
 destinies; but that is a calling and a task which 
 is denied to me." 
 
 ' Very well; good night till next Saturday." 
 When Saturday evening came round, the two 
 old men sat in the corner room with their toddy 
 and tobacco and a large pile of manuscript on 
 the table. The postmaster looked a little ner- 
 vously at it, as a child might at a family book of 
 sermons. 
 
 "We can give two evenings to it," said the 
 doctor soothingly.
 
 70 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 
 
 ' ' Ah no ! we have the whole evening before us 
 and to-morrow is Sunday. Fire ahead ! We will 
 have an interval for refreshments." 
 
 The doctor began to read at six o'clock and 
 had finished when it struck eleven.
 
 THE DOCTOR'S SECOND 
 STORY
 
 HE had left his Christiania full of bitterness 
 because a public injustice had been done him. 
 At forty years of age he had written the best 
 modern drama and had invented a new form of 
 play with a new plot which answered the expecta- 
 tions of the generation which was growing up. 
 But the older generation was still alive, and 
 spectators, actors, and critics felt that their 
 ideals were leaving them in the lurch, and that 
 they themselves would be involved in their fall. 
 If the public taste took a new direction which 
 they could not follow, they would be regarded as 
 superannuated, and be left behind. Accordingly 
 his masterpiece had been called idiotic and had 
 been hissed off the stage, and it had been sug- 
 gested to him that he should return to America, 
 where he had already been and left his wife, 
 from whom he was separated. 
 
 But, instead of going to America, he went to 
 Copenhagen. In the centre of the city he set up 
 
 a restaurant where he foregathered with Swedes 
 
 73
 
 74 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 and Finns. After some months' delay he suc- 
 ceeded in getting his drama performed at a 
 Copenhagen theatre. It was decidedly successful 
 and his reputation was saved. He had felt that 
 he had done with life, but now he began to wake 
 up and to look about him. But when he did enter 
 into life again, he did so with dull resignation and 
 an almost fatalistic spirit which found expression 
 in his favourite motto: ''Prepared for every- 
 thing!"- 
 
 His dramatic success resulted in his receiving 
 social invitations. One evening he went to a 
 soiree at a distinguished author's, round whom 
 the younger stars in art and literature were accus- 
 tomed to gather. The supper was long and 
 brilliant, but several unoccupied places were 
 waiting for guests who should arrive after the 
 theatres had closed. At half -past ten there was 
 a stir in the company, for the expected guests 
 came three ladies and three men all unknown 
 to the Norwegian. But one of the three ladies 
 greeted him as an acquaintance and reached the 
 stranger her hand. Immediately afterwards he 
 asked the hostess in a whisper who it was. 
 
 ' ' Who is it ? Miss X of course ! You 
 
 talked with her at Doctor E 's supper." 
 
 ' ' Really ! It is strange that with my good 
 memory I cannot recall her appearance. One
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 75 
 
 evening lately, in a well-lit theatre lobby, I passed 
 her without a greeting." 
 
 " Of course you don't see that she is pretty." 
 
 ' ' Is she ? " He leant forward to look at the 
 young lady who had taken her seat far, down the 
 table. " Yes she doesn't look bad." 
 
 ; ' Fie ! Fie ! She is a celebrated beauty of the 
 best Copenhagen type." 
 
 ' Oh ! Formerly I only admired blondes but 
 latterly have confined my admiration to brun- 
 ettes . ' ' Then they talked of something else . After 
 supper the company gathered in the drawing- 
 room and the beautiful Dane and the Norwegian 
 sat so close together that he put her cup down 
 for her. When she asked who would escort her 
 home, he answered: " I of course," and his 
 escort was accepted. When at last the company 
 broke up, he and she found themselves in the 
 same mysterious way so deep in conversation that 
 a group of ladies and gentlemen formed a circle 
 round them with a mischievous air to watch them. 
 The pair, however, did not observe this, but 
 continued to talk. As they went down the steps 
 they heard a ' ' good night ! ' ' and a ringing 
 laugh overhead from the young and charming 
 hostess who was leaning over the balcony-railing. 
 They went along the shore, and past the bridges, 
 continuing their; conversation without a pause.
 
 76 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 When they came to X Street she invited him 
 
 to supper the following evening to meet a young 
 female artist. But she prepared him to find her 
 surroundings very simple, as she was staying in 
 a pension kept by a strict old lady. Then they 
 parted as though they had been old acquaintances 
 and colleagues. 
 
 As he walked home alone through the night, 
 and tried to recall the events of the evening to his 
 mind, he noticed again the curious fact that he 
 could not remember her appearance. Yet as a 
 former reporter, he had been so accustomed to 
 photograph people and scenes, landscapes and 
 interiors with his eye that he could not under- 
 stand it. Moreover, he observed that she was 
 quite a different person this evening to what she 
 had been the first time they met. There was now 
 no trace of " independence " about her, only a 
 mild yieldingness, a certain melancholy, which 
 became her well and aroused sympathy. 
 When they talked of the unfortunate fate of a 
 certain person, there were tears in her voice. 
 It was the voice which he remembered more than 
 anything else about her somewhat deep and 
 melancholy with a slight accent which carried 
 one far away from the great town and awoke 
 memories of wood and sea, the sounds of nature, 
 shepherds' huts, and hay-rakes. He now recol-
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 77 
 
 lected how they had really treated her like a 
 child the previous evening, had teased her about 
 her writings, and asked her for recommendations, 
 at which she had only smiled. She also had the 
 unfortunate habit of letting fall naive expressions, 
 which were really seriously meant, but some- 
 times had a repellent effect. 
 
 The only one who had taken her seriously was 
 himself, the foreigner. And he had seen that she 
 was no child but a woman with whom he could 
 speak of men and books and all that interested 
 him, without once having to explain his remarks. 
 
 When he awoke the next morning, he tried to 
 call to his mind the events and persons of the 
 previous day. It was his habit, when he made 
 a new acquaintance, to seek in his memory for 
 the ' ' corresponding number, " as he called it, 
 in order to get a clear idea of his character; i.e. 
 he thought which of his old friends most nearly 
 resembled the person in question. This psy- 
 chical operation was often performed involun- 
 tarily, i.e. when he tried to call up the image of 
 his new acquaintance, the figure of an old one 
 rose up in his mind and more or less obliterated 
 the latter. When he now recalled his yesterday's 
 
 memories of Miss X he saw her with an 
 
 elderly married cousin, to whom he had always 
 felt indifferent. This suppressed any sentimental
 
 78 FAIE HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 feeling, if any were present, and he only thought 
 of her as a kindly woman-friend. Accordingly, 
 in the evening, he felt perfectly calm and without 
 a trace of that embarrassment which one some- 
 times feels in attempting to make oneself agree- 
 able to a young lady. He was received with 
 perfect frankness as an old acquaintance and led 
 into a lady's boudoir elegantly furnished with 
 a well-appointed writing-table, flower-plants, 
 family portraits, carpets, and comfortable chairs. 
 
 Since the lady painter had been prevented 
 coming, he had to be content with a tete-a-tete, 
 and this somewhat jarred on his sense of pro- 
 priety. But his hostess's simple and unaffected 
 manner caused him to suppress some remarks 
 which might have hurt her feelings. 
 
 So they sat opposite each other and talked. 
 Her black silk dress had blue insets and was cut 
 in the " empire style," with dark lace trimmings 
 which hung from her shoulders like a sleigh-net. 
 This gave her a somewhat matronly appearance, 
 and when he noticed her tone like that of an 
 experienced woman of the world, he thought for 
 a moment : " She is divorced ! " Her face, which 
 he could now examine in full light, showed a flat 
 forehead which looked as though it had been 
 hammered smooth and betokened a determined 
 will without obstinacy. The eyes were large
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 79 
 
 and well-defined as with Southerners. The nose 
 seemed to have altered its mind while growing, 
 for it took a little bend in the middle and became 
 Eoman by degrees. This little unexpected " joy- 
 ful surprise " lent a cameo-like charm to her 
 profile. 
 
 Their conversation was still more lively this 
 evening, for they had already amassed a small 
 store of common experiences to discuss, acquaint- 
 ances to analyse, and ideas to test. They sat there 
 and cut out silhouettes of their friends, and as 
 neither of them wished to seem spiteful, they cut 
 them in handsome shapes, and not with pointed 
 scissors. 
 
 During this innocent interchange of thought, 
 he had glanced at a very large flower-basket full 
 of splendid roses. She had divined his thoughts, 
 and just as a servant brought in a bottle of wine 
 and cigarettes, she got up and went towards the 
 roses. 
 
 ("She is engaged!' he thought and felt 
 himself superfluous.) 
 
 " I was given these by a friend on his depar- 
 ture," she said. 
 
 But in order to show that she was not engaged 
 she broke off a stem carelessly. It was fastened 
 with wire, and she had to look for her scissors. 
 As these were in her work-basket on the lowest
 
 80 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 shelf of her work-table, she knelt down and 
 remained kneeling. She remained in that atti- 
 tude while she fastened two of the finest roses 
 in his buttonhole, and she only needed to stretch 
 out an arm to reach a glass of wine and drink to 
 his health. 
 
 ' Roses and wine ! ' I have used that as a 
 refrain for a ballad," he said. He thought the 
 situation somewhat strange but insignificant in 
 itself. 
 
 "Oh! do repeat the ballad !" 
 He had forgotten it. 
 
 She rose up and sat on her chair, and he per- 
 suaded her to tell him something of her life. She 
 had early left her parents, who lived separated 
 without being divorced, for they were Catholics. 
 She had been educated in convent-schools in 
 London, Paris, Italy, and elsewhere. In Paris 
 especially, when with English ladies, she had been 
 bothered with religion, but had finally thrown it 
 all overboard. She certainly felt an emptiness 
 without it, but expected, like everyone else, that 
 some new substitute was coming into the world. 
 Meanwhile, like her contemporaries, she devoted 
 her energies to the deliverance of humanity from 
 pauperism and oppression. She had superficially 
 studied Nietzsche among others and laid him 
 aside again after finding in him a slight correo
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 81 
 
 tive to over-strained expectations of universal 
 equality. 
 
 While she was talking, he noticed that light 
 fell through a curtain behind her back, which 
 screened a door apparently leading into the 
 interior of the house. Like lightning the thought 
 struck him that he might be the object of a joke, 
 and was to be surprised in the ridiculous position 
 of a woman-worshipper. Or perhaps it was only 
 for propriety's sake that communication was kept 
 open with the main building. This wholesome 
 doubt kept their conversation free from all 
 tincture of flirtation, and when supper was served 
 he reproached himself for having suspected 
 his hostess of evil purposes or a want of trust in 
 him. 
 
 About half-past eight he was about to go, but 
 she only needed to express a suspicion that he 
 was longing for the cafe to make him remain. 
 About half -past nine o'clock he was going again 
 but was kept back. 
 
 " But," he remonstrated, "it is my part as 
 the elder and more prudent to spare you any 
 unpleasantness." 
 
 She understood nothing, but declared that she 
 was independent and that the lady who kept the 
 pension was accustomed to her suppers. 
 
 At last his instinct told him that it was a 
 
 F
 
 82 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 mistake to stay longer ; he rose and took his leave. 
 On his way home, he said to himself, "No, 
 people are not so simple, and cannot be labelled 
 by formulas, for I don't comprehend an atom of 
 this evening or of this woman." 
 
 The next time they met it was in a museum. 
 Her outer dress made her look like a young 
 married woman of thirty or more. Her mouth 
 had a tired expression and had fine little wrinkles 
 near it, as is the case with those who laugh often. 
 But she was melancholy, hinted at having had a 
 breach with her father, and spoke of taking her 
 departure shortly. She inquired regarding her 
 friend's relations to theatres and publishers, and 
 offered to help him with advice and influence. 
 To-day she was mere motherly tenderness, and 
 a certain carelessness in her toilet suggested that 
 she did not want to please as a woman. 
 
 But when she proposed that they should go to 
 the theatre together he declined, from a feeling 
 that he ought not to compromise her, nor expose 
 himself to danger, for his precarious pecuniary 
 position did not permit him to think of a love 
 affair. 
 
 He proposed to her instead that they should 
 go for a stroll together, and she suggested that he 
 should escort her from her new lodging, for she 
 had changed her rooms.
 
 FATE HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 83 
 
 (" They have given her notice at the pen- 
 sion, because of me," he thought, but said 
 nothing.) 
 
 By this time his curiosity as an author was 
 aroused, and he wished to learn the riddle of this 
 woman, for he had never seen any other change 
 their appearance as she did. 
 
 When in the evening he rang at her door, he 
 was shown into a side room and asked to wait. 
 When she was dressed he was let out into the 
 front hall, where they met. This, then, was a 
 new order of things. 
 
 They went westward by an empty street which 
 led to the Zoological Gardens, and entered a res- 
 taurant which she seemed to know well. In her 
 fur jacket and with a kerchief on her head she 
 looked in the dark like an old woman, and as she 
 stooped somewhat, she seemed to have some- 
 thing witchlike about her. But when they entered 
 the well-lit restaurant, and she laid aside kerchief 
 and jacket she stood revealed all at once in her 
 youthful beauty. A moss-green, tightly fitting 
 dress showed the figure of a girl of eighteen, and 
 with her hair brushed smooth, she looked like 
 an overgrown schoolgirl. He could not conceal 
 his astonishment at this witchery, and looked her 
 all over as though he were seeking a concealed 
 enemy with a searchlight. (" Eros ! Now I am
 
 84 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 lost! " he thought. And from that moment he 
 was indeed.) 
 
 She saw quite well the effect she had produced, 
 and seemed to glisten there in a sort of phosphor- 
 escent light, sure of victory, with a triumphant 
 expression round her mouth, for she saw that he 
 was conquered. He felt a sudden fear. She had 
 his soul in her pocket, and could cast it into the 
 river or into the gutter; therefore he hated her 
 at the same time. He saw that his only chance 
 of safety lay in awakening a reciprocal flame in 
 her, so that she might be as closely bound to him 
 as he was to her. With this half -conscious pur- 
 pose, he did what every man in his place would 
 have done insinuated himself into her confi- 
 dence, made himself as little as a child and 
 aroused her sympathy, the sympathy of a woman 
 for a lacerated and damned soul which has no 
 more hope of happiness. She listened to him and 
 received his confidence as a tribute, with calm 
 majestic motherliness, without a trace of coquetry 
 or pleasure at hearing of another's misfortune. 
 
 When at last, after eating a cold supper, they 
 were about to go, he rose to look up a train in a 
 railway guide. When he returned to the table 
 and wished to pay the bill, the waiter informed 
 him that it had already been paid by the lady ! 
 Then he flared up, and wrongly suspecting that
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 85 
 
 she thought he had no money, demanded that at 
 any rate he should pay for himself. 
 
 " I don't know the customs of your country," 
 he said, ' ' but in mine a man who lets a lady pay 
 for him is dishonoured." 
 
 ' You were my guest," she answered. 
 
 "No, we went out together, and we cannot 
 come here again. Don't you know what kind of 
 a reputation you will give me, and by what a hate- 
 ful name this waiter may call me ? " 
 
 When he recalled the waiter to make good the 
 mistake, there was another scene, so that he rose 
 angrily and laid his share on the table. She was 
 sad, but w r ould not acknowledge herself in the 
 wrong. They were both out of humour, and he 
 noticed that she was thoughtless, just as thought- 
 less as when she invited a gentleman alone to her 
 room so late in the evening. Or was it an expres- 
 sion of feminine independence demanding to be 
 treated exactly like a man in spite of propriety 
 and prejudice ? Perhaps it was the latter, but he 
 fell it to be a piece of presumption, and was 
 angry. There threatened to be an uncomfortable 
 silence between them as they walked home, but 
 she put out her hand and said in a kind, confi- 
 dential voice : " Don't be cross." 
 
 ; ' No I am not that, but, but . . . never do it 
 again."
 
 86 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 They parted as friends, and he hurried to the 
 cafe. He had not been there for a long time, 
 partly through a certain dislike to the tone pre- 
 vailing there, which no longer harmonised with 
 his present mood, and partly because he had 
 promised his friend to be moderate. He found 
 the usual company, but felt somewhat out of 
 place, and made a clear resolve never to bring 
 her there. Accordingly, he soon went home and 
 sank in meditations which were partly gloomy 
 and partly bright. When he recollected the mo- 
 ment of emergence of the youthful beauty from 
 the fur skin of the animal there seemed to him 
 something weird and ominous about it. It was 
 not the youthful beauty which is clothed in reflec- 
 tions from a paradise of innocence, but a dark, 
 demoniac beauty which becomes a man's death, 
 the grave of his virile will, and which leads to 
 humiliation, ruin, and disgraceful bargaining. 
 But it is as inevitable and unescapable as 
 Fate. 
 
 The next day he was invited, together with 
 her, to dinner at an art professor's. She then 
 appeared in a new character, talking like a 
 woman of the world in a confident tone, firing 
 off smart sayings and epigrams and never at a 
 loss for an answer. At intervals she seemed 
 indifferent, blase, and cruel.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 87 
 
 The professor, who had just been sitting on a 
 jury, told us that he had joined in giving a verdict 
 of guilty against a child murderess. 
 
 "I should have acquitted her," said Miss 
 
 X . The professor, who belonged to the 
 
 Danish Academy and had the entree to the Court, 
 was astonished, but did not argue with her. He 
 construed her answer as a burst of caprice and let 
 the matter drop. The conversation at table was 
 somewhat forced. The Norwegian, who had been 
 invited by the lady of the house, did not feel at 
 ease in this circle where everything revolved 
 round the Court. Probably his friend had 
 arranged this invitation with the kind intention 
 of making him known and of investing him, who 
 had the reputation of being half an anarchist, 
 with an air of gentility. The discord was felt when 
 the talk turned upon Art, and the professor 
 was in a minority of one with his opinions and 
 academic ideals. 
 
 Therefore, when at dessert time his hostess 
 asked the Norwegian whether he would come to 
 one of her receptions, where he would have the 
 opportunity of meeting many celebrities, she 
 received such a sharp look from her husband, 
 that the Norwegian declined the invitation 
 decidedly. Just then the Scandinavians were in 
 ill favour in the higher circles of society because
 
 a Norwegian artist by his new style of painting 
 had caused a schism in the Academy. 
 
 Again he had let himself be enticed by his 
 friend's thoughtlessness. She had brought him 
 into a circle to which he did not belong and in 
 which he was not welcome. On the other hand 
 she seemed to notice nothing of it, but was as 
 much at home and at her ease as before. 
 
 After dinner there was music. The young 
 beauty behaved as though her friend was not 
 there and never looked at him at all. When the 
 party broke up, she took leave of him as though 
 of a stranger, and let herself be escorted home 
 by someone else. 
 
 n 
 
 It was a Sunday afternoon in February. They 
 were walking in one of the outer streets of the 
 city towards the west, where they were sure to 
 meet no acquaintances. Finally they entered a 
 restaurant which lay off the road. She spoke of 
 her approaching departure, and he said he would 
 miss her society. 
 
 " Come along too," she said simply and 
 openly.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 89 
 
 ' ' Yes," he answered, " it is really all the same 
 to me where I stay." 
 
 That was an idea which seemed to drive away 
 certain clouds. She now began to speak of 
 Berlin, the theatrical prospects there, and so 
 on. 
 
 " But," he objected, " it would be too far 
 from my children." 
 
 ' Your children ! Yes, I have often thought 
 of them. Have you their portraits with you? Do 
 let me see them ! ' 
 
 He really had the portraits with him, and as she 
 repeated her wish, he showed them. The two 
 girls did not interest her much but she was 
 delighted at the eight-year-old fair boy with the 
 upturned look. " What a lovely child's face! 
 Isn't it a happiness to have such a child ! ' 
 
 ' To have it to-day, and lose to-morrow ! " he 
 replied. 
 
 She now examined the photograph more 
 exactly and began to compare it with the father 
 somewhat too closely. He began to feel some of 
 that shyness which a man feels before a woman 
 when she assumes this role. 
 
 'It is you," she said, "and not you 
 also." 
 
 He asked for no explanation, and she requested 
 that she might keep the portrait by her.
 
 90 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 They resumed the discussion of the proposed 
 journey, but she was absent-minded and often 
 let her looks rest on the photograph. 
 
 He could not guess what was in her mind but 
 he noticed that there was a struggle of some kind 
 and that she was on the point of forming a reso- 
 lution. He felt how a network of fine sucker- 
 like tendrils spread from her being and wove 
 itself into his. Something fateful w r as impending. 
 He felt depressed, longed for the circle of male 
 friends whom he had abandoned, and asked her 
 to release him from his promise not to go any 
 more to the cafe. 
 
 " Are you longing to go down there again? " 
 she said in a motherly voice. ' Think of your 
 little son! " 
 
 They went out silent in the dark but starlit 
 evening. He had for the first time offered her 
 his arm and the cape of his coat flapped loose in 
 the wind and struck her face. ' I have already 
 dreamt this once," she said. But he gave no 
 answer. 
 
 When they came to her door, she took him by 
 both hands, looked him in the eyes and said : 
 " Don't go to your friends." Then she let her 
 veil drop, and before he divined her intention, 
 printed a kiss through the veil on his mouth. 
 As he stretched out his arms to embrace her, she
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 91 
 
 was already behind the door, and closed it. He 
 stood there completely crestfallen without being 
 able to understand how it had happened. Then 
 came the conclusion : ' ' She loves me and has not 
 been playing with me." But what audacity ! It 
 is true she let her veil fall, for she was modest, 
 and fled, alarmed at what she had done. It was 
 original, but not bold-faced; other countries, 
 other manners ! 
 
 But for a man it was somewhat humiliating to 
 receive the first sign of love and not to bestow it. 
 Yet he would never have dared to run the risk 
 of a possible box on the ears and a scornful laugh. 
 It was well that it had happened; now he had 
 certainty, and that was enough. 
 
 She loved him ! Since he was loved, he could 
 say to himself : " I am not so bad after all if 
 someone can look up to me and believe good of 
 me." This awoke his self-respect, hope, and 
 confidence. He felt himself young again, and 
 was ready to begin a new spring. It was true 
 that he had only shown her his good side, 
 but his habit of suppressing his worse nature 
 for the occasion had brought his better nature 
 into prominence. This was the secret of the 
 ennobling influence of real love. He played the 
 part of the magnanimous till it became a second 
 nature. The fact that he discovered her beauty,
 
 92 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 and was delighted with her as a woman later on 
 was a further guarantee that the stages of their 
 love affair had developed themselves in orderly 
 progression, and that he had not been merely 
 captivated by a beautiful exterior. He had 
 indeed guessed her defects and overlooked them, 
 for that is the duty of love, and the chief proof 
 of its genuineness, for without forbearance with 
 faults there is no love. He went home and wrote 
 the inevitable letter. It ended with the words : 
 ' ' Now the man lays his head in your lap as a 
 sign that the good in you overcomes the evil in 
 him, but do not misuse your power, for then you 
 must expect the usual fate of tyrants." 
 
 The next morning he sent off the letter by a 
 messenger. Ilmarinen his Finnish friend stood 
 by the head of his bed and looked mysterious. 
 " Well ! " he said. " Are you going to try once 
 more? " 
 
 " Yes, so it appears." 
 
 " And you dare to?" 
 
 ' If it comes to the worst, I only dare to be 
 unhappy, and one is unhappy anyhow." 
 
 " Yes, yes." 
 
 "It is a change at any rate, and this lonely 
 life is no life." 
 
 Instead of an answer to his letter he received 
 a telegram with a request to meet her that even-
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTTL STRAND 93 
 
 ing at the office of an editor who might be useful 
 to them. 
 
 In answer to this he sent a message by tele- 
 gram : "I don't come till I have received an 
 answer to my letter." 
 
 Again came a telegram, in which she asked 
 to be allowed to postpone her answer till the 
 next day. 
 
 He thought the whole affair nonsensical but 
 went to keep the appointment. She seemed as 
 though nothing had happened; they ate their 
 supper and discussed business. The editor was 
 a married man, and pleasant, nor did he seem to 
 wish his visitors to worship him. 
 
 This evening, however, the Norwegian thought 
 her ugly. She was carelessly dressed, had ink 
 on her fingers, and she talked so exclusively of 
 business that she lost all her ideal aspect. He 
 had experienced much in his life, and seen many 
 strange people, but anyone so eccentric as this 
 woman he had never seen. He went home with 
 a feeling of relief, firmly resolved not to follow 
 her to Berlin, nor to link his destiny any closer 
 with hers. The next morning he received her 
 letter; this strengthened him still further in his 
 resolve to withdraw. She wrote that she was one 
 of those women who cannot love. (" What sort 
 of a woman is that ? A mere phrase ! ' : he
 
 94 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 thought.) He believed that he loved her but he 
 was only in love with her love. (" Alexandre 
 Dumas I think!") She still desired, however, 
 to remain his friend and asked him to meet her 
 that day. 
 
 He answered this with a farewell letter of 
 thanks. 
 
 Then there rained on him telegrams and express 
 
 messengers. 
 
 Towards evening a hotel waiter entered his 
 room and announced that a lady in a carriage 
 was waiting below to see him. At first he thought 
 of declining to go down, but she might come to 
 his room, and then the bond would be made fast. 
 Accordingly he went down, entered the carriage, 
 and without reflection or saying anything they 
 gave each other a kiss, which seemed perfectly 
 natural. There ensued a stormy conversation 
 which was extremely like a quarrel. She asked 
 that he should accompany her that very night on 
 her journey, but he gave a decided refusal. If 
 they were seen together, to-morrow the ' ' elope- 
 ment " would be in all the newspapers. That he 
 could not bring his conscience to agree to, both 
 on account of her parents and his own children. 
 He also told her that he was dependent on other 
 people's help, and that as soon as he was known 
 as an adventurer all these resources would dry up.
 
 FAIK HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 95 
 
 c Then you don't love me ! ' 
 
 1 What nonsense you talk, child." 
 
 He had to laugh at her. They got out of the 
 cab and continued their contest in a little green 
 lane which led down to the shore. 
 
 Now and then he put his arm round her neck 
 and silenced her mouth with a kiss. 
 
 ' ' I have seen that you are cracked, but I my- 
 self am half -mad, you see, and you won't get the 
 better of me." 
 
 " I will jump into the sea! " she shrieked. 
 ' Very well! I will follow, and can swim." 
 
 At last he got her to laugh. Then they entered 
 a cafe in order to arrive at a final decision. Now 
 he had the upper hand and treated her like a 
 naughty girl, and curiously enough, as soon as he 
 had assigned this role to her, she took it up and 
 maintained it. 
 
 Did these two love each other now? Yes, 
 certainly, for he knew how tied he was, and she 
 had already, as appeared later on, confessed her 
 love in a letter to her mother, adding that he was 
 to know nothing of it, for then she would immedi- 
 ately be brought under the yoke of subjection. 
 
 The final decision they arrived at was that she 
 should travel alone, and they made no promises 
 to each other. They were to correspond and 
 see whether they would be able to meet in the
 
 96 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 summer ; when his position was more secure they 
 would think of betrothal and marriage. 
 
 They parted, and did not see each other again 
 for a long time. 
 
 He went immediately afterwards to look up his 
 old friends in the cafe. There in his own circle 
 he wished to find himself again, for during this 
 month's exclusive living with a woman, he had 
 become loosed from his own environment, lost 
 his foothold, and built up a common life on the 
 shaky foundation of the temperament of a young 
 girl, whom his passion Tiad transformed into a 
 mature woman. Her last outbreak of anger had 
 revealed a fury who believed that she could 
 compel him to blind obedience. During this her 
 face had exhibited all possible changes from the 
 broad grin of Punch to the hissing of the cat 
 which shows its white claws. He breathed more 
 lightly, experienced a sensation of relief, and 
 entered the cafe feeling as though he had left 
 something oppressive behind him, something 
 happily over and done with ! 
 
 The Swede sat there, and probably the gossip 
 regarding the Norwegian's engagement had 
 caused him to bring his lady friend with him. She 
 was a tall fragile-looking Swede who seemed to 
 be emaciated by illness; she had a mournful, 
 despairing sort of voice, a drawling accent and
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 97 
 
 drooping eyes. As an artist, although obscure 
 she was " emancipated " as the phrase is, but not 
 free from the feminine vanity of being able to 
 appear with a number of male hangers-on, whom 
 she boasted of having made conquests of. Her 
 thoughts had long turned upon the Norwegian. 
 When they met, she found him novel and full of 
 surprises. At the same time he brought with him 
 the fire of his newly kindled flame. Within half 
 an hour she had neither eyes nor ears for her 
 old friend. When at last she snapped at him, he 
 stood up and asked her to come with him. " You 
 can go," she answered. And he went. 
 
 In less than an hour she had broken with her 
 friend of many years and formed a tie with the 
 Norwegian who an hour and a half before had 
 kissed his fiancee at parting. He asked himself 
 how that was possible, but took no time to reflect 
 on it. She possessed the advantage of being 
 able to understand him completely; he was able 
 to speak out his thoughts after a long imprison- 
 ment ; he needed only to give a hint in order to be 
 understood. She drank in the eloquence of his 
 words, seemed to follow the sudden leaps of his 
 thought, and probably received answers to many 
 questions which had long occupied her mind. 
 But she was ugly and ill-dressed, and he some- 
 times felt ashamed at the thought that he might 
 
 o
 
 98 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 
 
 be suspected of being her admirer. Then he felt 
 an unspeakable sympathy with her which she 
 interpreted to mean that she had made a conquest 
 of him. 
 
 They went out into the town and wandered 
 from cafe to cafe, continually talking. Some- 
 times his conscience pricked him, sometimes he 
 felt a repulsion to her, because she had been 
 faithless to her friend. Faithlessness indeed was 
 the link which united them, and they felt as if 
 Destiny had driven them to commit the same 
 wrong on the same evening. She had at once 
 inquired about his engagement and he had at first 
 given an evasive answer; but as she had con- 
 tinued to ask with comrade-like sympathy he had 
 told her the whole story. But in doing so he 
 spoke of his love, he became enthusiastic; she 
 warmed herself at the glow and seemed to be a 
 reflection of " the other." So the two images 
 coincided, and the absent maiden, who should 
 have been a barrier between them, was the one 
 who brought them near each other. 
 
 The next day they met again, and she never 
 seemed tired of discussing his engagement. She 
 was in a critical mood and began to express 
 doubts whether he would be happy. But she 
 went carefully to work, showed indulgence, and 
 only attempted purely objective psychological
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 99 
 
 analysis. She also understood how to withdraw 
 a severe expression at the right time in order not 
 to frighten him away. 
 
 Now as ill-luck would have it, he received at 
 noon a letter from his fiancee which was the 
 answer to the stormy one he had written when 
 they parted. In her letter she only wrote of 
 business matters, gave good advice in a superior 
 tone, in a word was pedantic and narrow-minded. 
 Not a trace of the pretty young girl was to be 
 found in the letter. This put him out of humour 
 and aroused his disgust to such a degree that 
 when he met his new friend, with a ruthless 
 joy in destruction he proceeded to analyse his- 
 fiancee under the microscope. The Swede was 
 not backward with her feminine knowledge of 
 feminine secrets to put the worst interpretation 
 on all the details which he narrated. He had 
 cast his lamb to the she-wolf, who tore the prey 
 asunder while he looked on. 
 
 At the beginning of April, that is three weeks 
 later, the Norwegian sat in the cafe one after- 
 noon with Lais, as she was called, after she had 
 become the friend of the company in general, 
 not of anyone in particular. He sat there with 
 a resigned air, "prepared for everything" as 
 usual. It had been difficult to keep his engage- 
 ment alive by means of the post, and it had
 
 100 FAIK HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 become still more uncertain after the news had 
 reached her father's ears and brought him to 
 despair. He was a Minister of State, lived at 
 Odense, went to Court when he was in the 
 capital, and wore twelve orders. He would rather 
 shoot himself than be the father-in-law of a 
 notorious nihilist. In order to put an end to the 
 affair the old man had dictated his conditions, 
 which were of course impossible. 
 
 The Norwegian must pay all his debts and give 
 a guarantee that he would have a regular and 
 sufficient income. Since a writer of plays has 
 nothing guaranteed, but is dependent on popular 
 favour, the wooer considered his proposal with- 
 drawn, and regarded himself as unfettered, and 
 indeed he was so. Moreover, thus humiliating 
 correspondence about pecuniary matters had 
 cooled his devotion, for love letters which were 
 full of figures and motherly advice, practical 
 items of information about publishers and so on, 
 were not inspiring to read for a literary free-lance. 
 And as the correspondence slackened, and finally 
 ceased, he considered himself entirely free. 
 
 With her usual vanity, Lais had ascribed to 
 herself the honour of having dissolved his engage- 
 ment, although there was no reason for her doing 
 so. Moreover, in the last few days a circumstance 
 had happened which was fortunate for his
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 101 
 
 future. Another friend of Lais had arrived 
 from the north, and as he was one of her admirers 
 she had such assiduous court paid to her that she 
 did not notice how the Norwegian was slackening 
 in his attentions. 
 
 In order to celebrate the arrival of the new- 
 comer, the last few days had been a continual 
 feast, and now they were in that strange con- 
 dition, when the soul is, so to speak, loosed from 
 its bearings and utters its thoughts without 
 distinction and without regard. 
 
 Lais was possessed by the not unusual idea that 
 she was irresistible, and liked to produce the 
 impression that all her male friends, even those 
 who had dropped her, were dismissed admirers. 
 Now she wished to show her newly arrived friend 
 how well she was provided with them and began 
 to skirmish with the Norwegian. Since he had 
 long cherished towards her the hate which is 
 born of imprudently bestowed confidences, he 
 seized the opportunity to bring about the breach 
 without scandal, in a word to dispose of her with- 
 out disgrace to either of them. Under some pre- 
 text, or perhaps with a foreboding that something 
 was about to happen, he took his leave and 
 left the other two together. But Lais pressed 
 him to remain, probably to gain an opportunity 
 of leaving him alone A when she went out with
 
 102 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 her friend. Here, however, she had made a mis- 
 calculation. Making a gesture of invitation to 
 the new-comer, the Norwegian went out after 
 saying the last word : ' ' Now I leave you 
 alone!" 
 
 When he came out on the street, he had a 
 certain uneasy suspicion that he had left some- 
 thing unfinished behind him, and had something 
 unexpected before him. He thought he heard 
 the hissing voice of the woman he had left. She 
 never opened her lips, which were sharply 
 defined, like those of a snake, when she spoke, 
 but brought the words straight out of her throat, 
 which was always hoarse through her sitting up 
 at night drinking and smoking. Such a voice in 
 women he called a ' ' porter voice ' ' because it 
 always reminded him of that black drink and its 
 concomitants. 
 
 Such is friendship with women either it ends 
 in love or in hatred just like love ! 
 
 When he came to his hotel, the waiter handed 
 him a local telegram. " That is what brought 
 me home," he said to himself. His experiences 
 had made him believe in telepathy to such a 
 degree that he was in the habit of saying when 
 in company and there was talk of sending for 
 some absent person : ' Shall we telepath to 
 him?"
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 103 
 
 Before he opened the telegram he believed he 
 knew the contents, and when he had read, he 
 felt as though he had done so before, and was 
 not surprised. The telegram ran thus : " I am 
 
 here; look me up at Doctor 's. Important 
 
 news." 
 
 He stood still for two minutes in order to form 
 a resolution. When the waiter came he asked 
 him to telephone to the friendly doctor, who had 
 a private hospital of his own and enjoyed a very 
 good reputation. The doctor came at once and 
 explained the situation : ' ' Are you thinking of 
 drawing back?" he asked. 
 
 ' ' No, but I must collect myself, and sleep for 
 twelve hours, for my nerves are out of control. 
 I will send a telegram to say that I am not well. 
 She will not believe that, but will come herself; 
 I beg you therefore to wait for half an hour." 
 
 The telegram went off, and in half an hour 
 steps were heard along the corridor. She 
 entered, dressed in black and at first full of 
 suspicion. But to be able to consult with the 
 doctor gave her an advantage which pleased her. 
 She said she would come next morning together 
 with the doctor, and then she went, after secretly 
 imprinting a kiss on the patient's hand. 
 
 " You must not play with your feelings," 
 said the doctor who remained behind. "This
 
 104 FAIR, HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 woman loves you and you love her. That is as 
 plain as a pikestaff." 
 
 The Norwegian lay alone all the evening and 
 sought to find some guiding thread through all 
 this chaos, but in vain. What a tangled thicket 
 was the human soul ! How could one bring it 
 into order? It passed from hate to contempt 
 over esteem and reverence and then back again 
 with one bound sideways and two forwards. 
 Good and evil, sublime and mean, uniting 
 treachery with deathless love, kisses and blows, 
 insulting reproaches and boundless admiration. 
 Since he knew the human soul he had adopted it 
 as one of his fundamental principles never to 
 balance accounts, never to go backwards, but 
 always forwards. When in the beginning of 
 their acquaintance she had wished to refer to 
 something which he had said on a previous 
 occasion he interrupted her : ' ' Never look 
 back ! Only go forwards ! One talks a lot of 
 nonsense on the spur of the moment. I have no 
 views but only speak impromptu, and life would 
 be very monotonous if one thought and said the 
 same things every day. It should be something 
 new ! Life is only a poem, and it is much jollier 
 to float over the marsh than to stick one's feet 
 in it and to feel for firm ground which is not 
 there/'
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 105 
 
 This must have suited her own ideas of life, 
 for she was immediately ready to adopt this role. 
 Therefore they found each other always novel, 
 and always full of surprises. They could not take 
 each other too seriously, and often when one of 
 them attacked his or her own discarded views 
 with the other's opinions of the day before, they 
 were obliged to laugh at their own foolishness. 
 Thus they were never clear about each other, 
 and in really serious moments they would exclaim 
 simultaneously : ' ' Who are you ? What are 
 you really? ' and neither of them could 
 answer. 
 
 As he was on the point of falling asleep, he 
 thought, ' ' I shall make no resolve, for I have 
 never seen a resolve lead to anything. The 
 course of events may guide my destiny as it has 
 done hitherto." 
 
 The next morning she came without waiting 
 for the doctor. She had put on a wise air, as if 
 she understood the illness thoroughly but did not 
 wish to descend to trifles. She took a rod out of 
 a basket she had brought with her. 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 ' ' That is ' the Easter rod ' ; to-day is Good 
 Friday." She set up the rod at his feet, and 
 adorned the edge of the bed with willow-branches 
 in bloom. Like a little housewife she bustled
 
 106 FAIR HAYEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 about the room, surveying and putting it in order. 
 Finally she sat down in an easy chair. 
 
 ' Well ! What is the great news? " he asked. 
 ' We must enter on an engagement, for the 
 papers have announced it." 
 
 1 ' Have they, indeed ? What about the old 
 man?" 
 
 ' Father has resigned himself, because the 
 matter cannot be altered; but he is not happy. 
 Now won't you congratulate me?" 
 
 ' You should congratulate me first, for I am 
 the elder." 
 
 " And the less intelligent." 
 
 " I have the honour to congratulate you. And 
 what a man you have got ! ' 
 
 So they chatted, and soon came to the subject 
 of their prospects. He dictated and she wrote. 
 Such and such plays of his accepted for the 
 stage. . . . That would be a thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 ' ' Discount thirty per cent for disappoint- 
 ments," she said. 
 
 ' ' Thirty ! I also reckon ninety or a hundred 
 per cent." 
 
 "Be sober! It is serious." And then they 
 laughed. 
 
 Divine frivolity! To look down on the ugly 
 earnestness of life as if all one had to do was to
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 107 
 
 blow at it. The poet's light-hearted way of 
 treating economy like poetry. 
 
 " How could one bear the miseries of life, 
 if one did not treat them as unrealities ? If I took 
 it seriously, I should have to weep the whole day, 
 and I don't want to do that." 
 
 Dinner-time came ; she laid the sofa-table, fed 
 him, and was especially sparing with the wine. 
 
 ' ' You have drunk enough now, and you must 
 promise never to go to the cafe again, especially 
 with Thais." 
 
 " Lais," he corrected her, but coloured. 
 "You know that then?" 
 
 " A woman of twenty-three knows every- 
 thing." 
 
 Glad to avoid a troublesome confession, he 
 promised never to visit the cafe again and kept 
 his word, for that was the only penance he could 
 offer for his sorry behaviour. Thus they were 
 engaged. His only social intercourse consisted 
 in her company, while she continued to go to 
 families which she knew, to visit theatres, and 
 so on, for this belonged to her work as a news- 
 paper correspondent. In case of an eventual 
 struggle for power, she had all the advantages 
 on her side, as she moved in an environment from 
 which she derived moral support and fresh 
 impulses, while he was thrown back on himself
 
 108 FAIB HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 and his previous observations. They lived really 
 like playfellows, for he never read what she wrote 
 in the newspapers, while she had read all his 
 writings but never referred to them. There was 
 no consciousness shown on either side that he was 
 a mature and well-known author and she a young 
 critic of books and plays. They met simply as 
 man and woman, and as her future husband he 
 had placed himself on the same level with her, 
 not above her. 
 
 Sometimes while they were together, he felt a 
 prisoner, isolated and in her power. If he were 
 to break with her now he would stand alone in the 
 world, for he had got quite out of touch with his 
 old friends and come to dislike the life of the 
 cafe. Moreover, he felt so grown together with 
 this woman, that he thought he would pine away 
 if parted from her. In spite of her love she could 
 not hide the fact that she thought she had him 
 absolutely in her power, and sometimes she let 
 him feel it. But then he raged like a lion in a 
 cage, went out and sought his old friends, though 
 he noticed he did not thrive among them and his 
 conscience pricked him for his faithlessness. She 
 sulked for half a day, then crept up to him, fell 
 on her knees and was pardoned. 
 
 " At bottom," he said once, "we hate each 
 other because we love each other. We fear to
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 109 
 
 lose our individualities through the assimilating 
 force of love, and therefore we must sometimes 
 have a breach in order to feel that I am not you, 
 and you are not I." 
 
 She agreed, but it was no remedy against the 
 spirit of revolt, the struggle of the ego for self- 
 justification. She loved him as a woman loves 
 a man, for she thought him handsome, although 
 he was ugly. He, for his part, demanded neither 
 respect nor admiration but only a measure of 
 trust, and a friendly demeanour. She was 
 generally sparkling and cheerful, playful, with- 
 out being teasing, yielding and gracious. 
 
 Once when he reflected over the various types 
 of woman he had observed in her during the 
 beginning of their acquaintance, he could 
 scarcely understand how she had been able to 
 play so many different parts. The literary inde- 
 pendent lady with Madame de StaeTs open mouth 
 and loquacious tongue had entirely disappeared ; 
 the grand, pretentious woman of the world and 
 the fin-de-siecle lady with morbid paradoxes were 
 also both obliterated. She saw how unpreten- 
 tious he was and she became like him. 
 
 April came and it w r as high spring-time. At the 
 same time his prospects had brightened ; some of 
 his plays had been accepted; a novel sold for a 
 considerable sum; and one of his dramas was
 
 110 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 acted in Paris. An untrue report was spread 
 that the engaged pair had gone off together. Her 
 parents in Odense were disturbed and urged on 
 the marriage. 
 
 ' Will you marry now? " she asked. 
 
 ' Certainly I will/' was his reply. 
 So the matter was settled ! But then came 
 difficulties. She was a Catholic and could not 
 marry a divorced man as long as his first wife 
 lived. In order to circumvent this difficulty he 
 devised the plan of being married in England. 
 And so it was settled. Her sister came as a 
 witness to the ceremony. She was married to 
 a famous artist, was herself an authoress, and 
 therefore understood how to value talent, even 
 when unaccompanied with earthly goods. 
 Thus they began their wedding journey. 
 
 Ill 
 
 It was a May morning on an island off the 
 English coast. He had gone with her to the 
 extreme end of a promontory where the cliff 
 descends sheer into the sea. He wished to ask 
 her something privately but did not dare to; 
 therefore they stood there silently staring into
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 111 
 
 the blue emptiness, seeking an object where there 
 was none. 
 
 They had stayed there six days without being 
 able to marry because through carelessness the 
 notice of his divorce had not been published till 
 some months after he had obtained a decree. 
 Accordingly it bore so late a date that the time 
 
 c? / 
 
 allowed for challenging it had not yet elapsed. 
 He had exchanged telegrams with the authori- 
 ties; confusion and misunderstanding caused 
 further delay, and his fiancee's sister became 
 impatient. 
 
 " Do you trust me? " he asked her. 
 
 ' Yes, I believe in your honesty, but you are 
 an unlucky creature." 
 ' ' And your sister ? ' : 
 
 " What is she to believe? She does not know 
 you. She only knows that your assurances that 
 the documents were valid, were incorrect." 
 
 ' She is right, but it is not my fault. What 
 does she mean to do? ' 
 
 ' She returns to-morrow, and I must go with 
 her." 
 
 ' So then we shall be parted before we are 
 married, and I return to life in hotels, restau- 
 rants, and night cafes." 
 
 ' No, not that," and after a pause she added : 
 c Let us jump into the sea."
 
 112 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 He put his arm round her : ' ' Have you ever 
 seen a destiny like mine? Wherever I go, I bring 
 unhappiness and destruction with me. Think ! 
 Your parents ! >: 
 
 ' Don't talk so! With patience we shall also 
 get out of this." 
 
 ' Yes, in order to fall into something else." 
 " Come ! shall I blow at it? " And she blew 
 the cloud away. There was an outbreak of divine 
 frivolity again and they raced home through the 
 fortifications and over the mines. 
 
 In the evening the decisive telegram came, and 
 the wedding was fixed for the next day. It took 
 place at first at the registry office. While the 
 oaths were being taken the bride fell into 
 hysterical laughter which nearly rendered the 
 whole ceremony abortive, since the registrar did 
 not know what to make of a scene which resem- 
 bled one in a lunatic asylum. 
 
 It was not a brilliant wedding-party which 
 
 assembled in the evening in the clergyman's 
 
 house. Besides the bride's sister, four strangers 
 
 pilots were present as witnesses when they 
 
 plighted their troth " before God." 
 
 Fourteen days of May had passed. Both were 
 sitting outside the comfortable little house and 
 watching how the migratory birds rested in the
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 113 
 
 garden before continuing their journey north- 
 ward. 
 
 "So quiet? " 
 
 " How long?" 
 
 ; ' Eight days more. But I had not thought 
 that marriage was such a splendid arrangement." 
 Although they call me a woman-hater, ' ' he 
 said, ' ' I have always loved woman, and although 
 they call me a friend of immorality, I have always 
 held by marriage." 
 
 ' Can you imagine yourself leading a lonely 
 life after this?" 
 
 "No, the thought chokes me." 
 ' Do you know I am so happy that I am 
 afraid?" 
 
 ' Yes, so am I. I feel as if someone were lying 
 and spying on us. She is called Nemesis, and 
 follows not only guilty but also happy men." 
 
 ' ' What are you most afraid of ? " 
 
 " That we should part." 
 
 " But that depends on us, I suppose." 
 
 * * Would that it did ! But discord comes from 
 without with the wind, with the dew, with too 
 long-continued sunshine, with the rain. Try to 
 explain which of us two was to blame for our 
 last quarrel." 
 
 "Neither!" 
 
 " Neither of us two, then it was a third. Who 
 
 H
 
 114 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 is this third? In order to give it a name people 
 call it ' misunderstanding ' ; but both of our 
 understandings were completely clear, not dis- 
 turbed at all." 
 
 "Don't frighten me. " 
 
 ' ' No, but be sure that the same event will 
 happen again and that we shall blame each other 
 as on the last occasion." 
 
 " Shall we not go and write now? " she 
 broke in. 
 
 " I cannot write." 
 
 ' Nor can I; my editor is angry because he 
 has had no article from me for two months." 
 
 ' And I have not had a single new idea for 
 a whole year. What will be the end of 
 it?" 
 
 The fact was that they had neutralised each 
 other, so that there was no more reaction on 
 either side. Their life together now consisted 
 of a comfortable silence. The need to be near 
 each other was so great that one could not leave 
 the room without the other following. They 
 tried to shut themselves in their rooms in order 
 to work, but after a short time one would knock 
 at the other's door. 
 
 ' ' Do you know, all this is very fine, but I am 
 becoming an idiot?" she complained. 
 
 " You also?"
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 115 
 
 " I can neither read, think, nor write any 
 more, and can hardly speak." 
 
 "It is too much happiness, and we must 
 seek some society, or we shall both become 
 silly." 
 
 The fact was that they had both ceased to 
 converse; they were apparently so harmonious 
 in all questions and predilections and knew each 
 other's opinions so well that there was no further 
 need to exchange thoughts. The same tastes, 
 the same habits, the same naughtinesses, the 
 same superficial scepticism had brought them 
 together, and now they were welded into one 
 like two pieces of the same metal. Each had 
 lost individuality and they were one. But the 
 memory of independence and one's own person- 
 ality was still present, and a war of liberation was 
 impending. The sense of personal self-preser- 
 vation awoke, and when each wished to resume 
 their own share, there was a strife about the 
 pieces. 
 
 ' Why don't you write? " he asked. 
 * I have tried, but it is always you and about 
 you." 
 
 ' Whether it is I, or someone else, it all comes 
 to the same thing." 
 
 ' You mean I have no self? ' 
 
 " You are too young to have a self."
 
 He had better have left that unsaid, for by 
 saying it, he woke her. 
 
 One morning there came a paper containing 
 a notice to the effect that a volume of his poems 
 had appeared with a London publisher. 
 
 " Shall we go to London? " she suggested. 
 ' Yes, gladly, though I don't believe these 
 notices which I have read so often. Anyhow, 
 as a business journey, it can be made to pay its 
 own expenses. " 
 
 The resolve was carried out. They saw the 
 little island * disappear with the same joy with 
 which they had before seen it rise out of the mist. 
 
 In Dover they had to stay one day at an hotel. 
 As he returned from a walk, he found his wife 
 sealing up six packets, all of the same shape 
 and size. 
 
 " What are you doing? " he asked. 
 
 "It is the account of your American journey, 
 which I am sending to some papers I know in 
 Denmark." 
 
 " But you should not cut it up into sections; 
 you know that it forms a complete whole. Have 
 you read it? " 
 
 "No, I have only glanced through it; but 
 at any rate it will bring in some money." 
 
 * Heligoland.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 117 
 
 : ' No, it will not; for no one will print it 
 piecemeal. Only in a single volume would it 
 have any value." 
 
 She paid no attention. " Come now," she 
 said commandingly ; "we will go to the post." 
 
 She meant well A but was foolish ; and although 
 experience had taught him what a dangerous 
 adviser she was, he let her have her way, and 
 followed. 
 
 On the stairs, he noticed that she limped, for 
 she had bought too tight boots with high heels, 
 such as were then only worn by cocottes. 
 
 When they reached the street, she hurried 
 on to the post, and he followed. As he noticed 
 how the symmetry of her little figure was 
 impaired by the many packages which she 
 insisted on carrying, and how she limped on the 
 boot heel which she had trodden down, he was 
 seized with a sort of repulsion. 
 
 It was the first time that he viewed her from 
 behind, and he thought involuntarily of the wood- 
 nymph of legend, who in front was a charming 
 fairy, but behind quite hollow. 
 
 The next moment he felt a remorseful horror 
 at himself and his thoughts. In this cruel heat 
 the little woman was carrying the heavy load, 
 and had already written six long letters to 
 editors all for his sake. And she limped ! But
 
 118 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 her brutal way of treating his work A and cutting 
 a manuscript to pieces without having read it; 
 treating a literary work as a butcher does a 
 carcass ! . . . 
 
 Again he felt repulsion, and again remorse, 
 mixed with that indescribable pain which a man 
 feels when he sees his beloved ugly, badly 
 dressed, pitiful, or ridiculous. People in the 
 street looked after her, especially when the wind 
 blew out her thin serge mantle, which resembled 
 a morning coat ; it swelled out like a balloon and 
 spoilt her tine figure. He hurried forward to take 
 the packets from her ; but she only waved him off, 
 and hastened on, cheerful and undismayed. 
 
 When she came out of the post office, she 
 wanted to go and buy larger boots. He followed. 
 Since the purchase of them would occupy half 
 an hour, she told him to wait outside. When 
 at last she came out, she walked quite comfort- 
 ably for a time, but then discovered that the 
 new boots also were too tight. 
 
 ' ' What do you think of a shoemaker like 
 that?" she said. 
 
 ' ' But he did not make the boots too tight for 
 you! There were larger ones also." 
 
 That was a dangerous commencement of the 
 conversation, and as they sat down at a 'table in 
 a cafe, the silence was uncomfortable. They
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 119 
 
 sat opposite each other and had to look one 
 another in the eyes; they sought to avoid doing 
 so, but could not, and when they were obliged 
 to look at each other, they turned away. 
 
 ' You would like now to be in Copenhagen 
 with your friends," she said. It was a good 
 guess. But even if he could have transported 
 himself thither for a second, he would have 
 wished himself back again at once. 
 
 Her nervousness increased, and her eyes 
 began to sparkle, but since she was intelligent, 
 she understood that neither of them was to 
 blame. 
 
 ' ' Go for a walk, ' ' she said ; ' ' we must be away 
 from each other for a while, and then you will 
 see it will be better." 
 
 He quite agreed with her, and they parted 
 without any bitterness. 
 
 As he walked along by the side of the harbour, 
 he felt his nerves become settled and quiet. He 
 became once more conscious of himself as a 
 separate and independent being; he no longer 
 gave out emanations but concentrated himself; 
 he was once more an individual in his own skin. 
 How well he knew these symptoms, which signi- 
 fied nothing, but which in spite of all attempts 
 to explain them, persisted as a constant phe- 
 nomenon.
 
 120 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL 
 
 Meanwhile, since he felt a positive satisfaction 
 in her absence, the thought stole into his mind 
 that perpetual freedom from her would be 
 attended by yet greater satisfaction, and as he 
 approached the steam-boat pier the thought 
 passed through his mind like a flash of lightning : 
 ' If I go off now, I shall be in Copenhagen in 
 two days." 
 
 He sat down, ordered a glass of beer, lighted 
 a cigar, and considered. 
 
 " If I go to London," he thought, " she will 
 get the upper hand, because she can speak the 
 language. I shall be led about by her like a deaf 
 and dumb man and shall have to sit like an idiot 
 among my literary friends whom she will get 
 under her thumb. A pleasant prospect! Being 
 patronised by her in the Danish newspapers was 
 already sufficiently humiliating. I incurred an 
 obligation to her. . . J 
 
 But in the midst of his meditations he broke 
 off, for he knew that no character could stand 
 such close and critical analysis. He knew also 
 that no one could endure being gazed at from 
 behind and judged in absence. Then a feeling 
 of loneliness came over him and a consciousness 
 of being faithless and ungrateful. He was drawn 
 back to her, stood up and went quickly to the 
 hotel. When he entered in an elevated mood and
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 121 
 
 not without sentimental feelings he was greeted 
 by a laugh, long-lasting and cheerful like the 
 song of the grasshoppers. Dressed in silk she 
 lay there, coiled up like an Angora cat, eating 
 sweetmeats, and smelling of perfume. 
 
 Then they laughed both together, as though 
 they had seen something comic in the street, 
 which had nothing to do with them. 
 
 Now they were in Pimlico, between West- 
 minster and Chelsea. They had paid one visit 
 and that was all. Everyone was away, all the 
 theatres were shut, and a perfectly tropical heat 
 prevailed. One's soul felt as if it would gladly 
 shake off its fleshly husk in order to seek for 
 coolness up in the air. From morning to even- 
 ing one felt only half alive. 
 
 The pressure of need had forced him unwil- 
 lingly to set to work and write. But as he had 
 already utilised most of his experiences, he was 
 obliged to make use of some material which 
 should, properly speaking, not have been 
 employed. However, he did violence to him- 
 self, overcame his scruples, and began. 
 
 ' Now I am writing," he told her trium- 
 phantly, " we are saved ! " 
 
 His wife came and saw how he had filled the 
 first sheet with letters. After an hour she came
 
 122 FAIR HAVEN AND FOtTL STRAND 
 
 again. He was lying on the sofa lamenting : 
 ' I can do nothing ! Let us then perish ! " 
 
 She left the room without saying a word, and 
 when she had shut the door, he bolted it. Then 
 he took out of his portmanteau a green linen bag 
 containing a quantity of sheets of paper covered 
 with dates. These had been often spoken of by 
 his friends and nicknamed the " Last Judgment." 
 
 It was an historical work, in which, from a 
 new and bold point of view, he treated the history 
 of the world as a branch of natural science. He 
 had planned it carefully, but perhaps it was 
 destined never to be printed and would certainly 
 never bring in any money. 
 
 After working for some time, he felt the usual 
 restlessness which he experienced in the absence 
 of his second self, and went down to seek her. 
 
 She sat reading a book which she made a lame 
 attempt to hide, as he entered. By her strange 
 manner he saw that some fateful element had 
 entered into their common life. 
 
 "What are you reading? " he asked. 
 
 " Your last book," she answered in a peculiar 
 tone. 
 
 "It has appeared then! Don't read it; you 
 will poison yourself." 
 
 It was a ruthless description of his first 
 marriage, written in self-defence and as a last
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 123 
 
 testament, for he had intended, after completing 
 it, to take his life. For years the manuscript had 
 remained sealed up in the care of a relative, and 
 he had never intended to print it. But in the last 
 spring and under the pressure of necessity, after 
 he had been assailed most unjustly by gossips 
 and in the newspapers, he had sold the book to 
 a publisher. 
 
 And now it had appeared and fallen into the 
 hands of the very last person who should have 
 seen it. His first impulse was to snatch the book 
 from her, but he was restrained by the thought : 
 ' ' It has happened ; well, let it happen ! ' And 
 with perfect calm, as though he had assisted at 
 his own inevitable execution, he left the room. 
 At lunch, he noticed the strange transformation 
 which had taken place in his wife. Her face 
 wore a new expression; her looks searched his 
 whole person, as though she were comparing 
 him with the man described in the book. He 
 took for granted that his sufferings there de- 
 scribed would not arouse her pity, for a woman 
 always takes sides with her own sex. But what 
 he could not understand was that she seemed to 
 recognise herself in certain of her predecessor's 
 characteristics. Perhaps her mind was occupied 
 by some still unsolved problems in the question 
 which married people instinctively avoid the
 
 woman question. Certain it was, however, tHat 
 she had learnt what her husband's views were 
 on the subject of her sex, and they were so cyni- 
 cally expressed that they must give her mortal 
 offence. 
 
 She did not say a word, but he saw in her 
 face that now all chance of peace was gone and 
 that this woman would never rest till she had 
 destroyed his marriage and compelled him to 
 shorten his life. Against this he could only 
 oppose his motto: "Be ready for everything," 
 and resolve to bear everything as long as possible, 
 and finally when nothing else remained, to go 
 his own way. Then she would devour herself in 
 solitude for want of food for her hate. 
 
 The next day she had hatched her egg, which 
 proved to contain a basilisk. 
 
 With an air which would fain have seemed 
 innocent, but did not, she told him, that since 
 he could not work, they must think of re- 
 trenching. 
 
 'Very well," he answered. 
 
 First of all they had to content themselves with 
 one room. This meant that all possibility of 
 being his own master, of withdrawing himself, 
 and of collecting himself was precluded. For the 
 future he would be confined with his tormentress
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 126 
 
 in the same cage, have no more power over his 
 own thoughts and inclinations, and above all, 
 not be able to work at the " Last Judgment." 
 
 'You know you cannot work!'" she re- 
 marked. 
 
 When midday came, a plate with some cold 
 bacon and bread was set before him. 
 
 ' You don't like soup," she said; "and hot 
 food isn't nice in this heat." 
 
 Then she sat down to watch him. 
 
 ' Won't you eat? " he asked. 
 
 "No, I am not hungry," she answered, and 
 continued to watch him. 
 
 Then he stood up, took his hat, and prepared 
 to go out. 
 
 ' Are you going out? " she asked; " then I 
 will go too, and we will keep each other com- 
 pany." 
 
 He went forward with long strides and she 
 followed him. In order to vex her he chose the 
 sunny side of the street by a long white wall, 
 where the heat was intense, and the reflected 
 light blinded the eyes. Then he dragged her out 
 to Chelsea, where there was no house that could 
 give shade. 
 
 She followed like an evil spirit. 
 
 When they came to the river, he thought for 
 a. moment of pushing her into the water, but did
 
 126 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 
 
 not. He went along the bank where lime-ships 
 unloaded, steam-cranes puffed out coal-smoke, 
 and chains hindered their walking. He hoped 
 that she would fall and hurt herself, or be pushed 
 down by a workman, and wished that a coal- 
 heaver would embrace and kiss her so bound- 
 less was his hate and hers. 
 
 It was in vain that he mounted over barrels 
 and wheel-barrows and threaded his way through 
 heaps of lime. He thought of jumping into the 
 river and swimming to the other side, but was 
 withheld by the thought that she perhaps could 
 swim also. 
 
 At last he made a wide circuit like an ox 
 persecuted by a gadfly, and went down to West- 
 minster. There the back streets swarmed with 
 the .strangest figures, like shapes seen in a night- 
 mare. He entered the abbey, as if to shake off 
 a pest, but she followed, silent and unweariable. 
 
 Finally he had to return home, and when he got 
 there, he sat down on one chair, and she seated 
 herself opposite him. 
 
 Then he understood how a man can become 
 a murderer, and determined to fly, as soon as he 
 had written for money. 
 
 The night came, and he hoped now to be able 
 to collect his thoughts, and be master of himself. 
 
 She pretended to be asleep, but he could
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 127 
 
 tell by her breathing that she did not really 
 sleep. 
 
 "Are you awake? " she asked. 
 
 He was still unwise enough to answer " Yes." 
 Now they lay there watching which should first 
 go to sleep. At last he did so. 
 
 In the middle of the night he awoke, listened, 
 and heard by her breathing that she was asleep. 
 
 Then his soul stretched itself, wrapped itself 
 up in the darkness, and enjoyed being able to 
 think without being watched by those cold, 
 threatening eyes. 
 
 She had not, however, really gone to sleep, 
 but in the darkness he heard her voice as before : 
 ' ' Are you asleep ? ' : 
 
 He felt the vampire which had fastened on to 
 his soul and kept watch even over his thoughts. 
 Why did she spy on him except that she feared 
 the silent workings of his mind? She felt perhaps 
 how he lay there, and worked himself gradually 
 out of the meshes of her net. He only needed a 
 few hours' quiet, but that he was not to have. 
 So she denied herself sleep in order to torment 
 him. She would not allow herself the pleasure 
 of going to the city, or of visiting the libraries 
 and museums, because she did not wish to leave 
 him alone. The next day he asked her whether 
 she wished to continue to translate his works.
 
 128 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 or whether he should have recourse again to his 
 old translators.' 
 
 ' ' Shall I translate you ? ' ' she said contemp- 
 tuously. ' There are better writers to be done." 
 
 ' Why will you not rather translate me than 
 your rubbishy authors? 5: 
 
 ' Take care ! " she hissed. " You over-value 
 yourself and a terrible awakening awaits you 
 from the dream of your imagined greatness." 
 
 She said that in a tone as if she were supported 
 by the public opinion of all Europe. That made 
 a certain impression on him, for an author, even 
 when recognised, often seems nothing to himself 
 but is entirely dependent on the opinion others 
 cherish regarding his talents. Now he felt the 
 bond between them snap. She hated and de- 
 spised his work, which was his only means of 
 support, and when she sought to rob him of 
 courage and confidence, she was the enemy. 
 And in dealing with an enemy there are only two 
 methods either to kill him, or not to fight him 
 but to fly. He determined on the latter. 
 
 He had still to wait a few days till the money 
 came, and these days were enough to develop his 
 aversion. He had opportunities of witnessing 
 more cold, calculating malice, mischievous joy 
 at successful thrusts, all the feminine small- 
 mindedness, meanness, and duplicity, but on a.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 129 
 
 larger scale. Since she knew that he could not 
 get away for want of money, she gave him to 
 understand that he was her prisoner ; but he was 
 not, however. 
 
 The room looked like a pigsty, and the meals 
 were so prepared as to be purposely repulsive. 
 Dirt and disorder prevailed to such a degree that 
 he felt himself in hell. With longing he thought 
 of his lonely attic which had always been tidy, 
 however careless he had been about expenses. 
 
 Two months had passed since their marriage. 
 All smiles and even conversation had ceased; 
 love was changed into unreasoning hate, and he 
 began to find her ugly. 
 
 On the last day before his departure, he felt 
 obliged to speak out in order not to explode. 
 ' You were beautiful as long as I loved you; 
 perhaps my love made you so, not only in my 
 opinion. Now I find you the ugliest and meanest 
 character which I have met in my life." 
 
 She answered: "I know that I have never 
 been so malicious towards anyone as towards 
 you, without being able to give any reasons for 
 it." 
 
 'I can, though," he said. 'You hate me 
 because I am a man, and your husband." 
 
 He had packed his portmanteau and she was 
 prepared for his departure. When now the time 
 
 I
 
 130 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 of separation approached and she believed it 
 would be for ever, her hatred vanished, and 
 behold ! love was there again ! 
 
 Her tenderness and care for him knew no 
 bounds. They spoke of the future as though 
 they would soon meet again. She gave him good 
 advice in a motherly way, but resignedly, as 
 if in face of an unalterable destiny which 
 demanded their temporary separation. As they 
 drove to the station in an open carriage, she 
 kissed him repeatedly in broad daylight in the 
 main streets. The passers-by laughed, but when 
 the police began to look attentively at the caress- 
 ing pair, he felt the need of caution. 
 
 "Take care," he said, " in this country we 
 might be imprisoned for making love openly." 
 'What do I care for that?" she answered. 
 " I love you so much." 
 
 He thought her again sublime in her all-defying 
 tenderness, and they planned to meet again in 
 a week. His intention was to go to his colleague 
 Ilmarinen in the Island of Riigen. The latter 
 would help him to order his affairs ; then he would 
 rent a house and they would meet again in a 
 fortnight at latest. 
 
 ' ' You see now, one cannot trust in the per- 
 manence of this hatred." 
 
 "No, one must trust love,"
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 131 
 
 " It looks as if that had conquered." 
 Their parting at the station was heart-rending, 
 and, as he sat alone in the railway carriage, he 
 felt the pain of longing for her. He did not find 
 the sense of freedom and happiness of which he 
 had dreamt. All the recollections of her malice 
 seemed to have been obliterated. 
 
 IV 
 
 He went from London to Hamburg in the hope 
 of finding acquaintances on his arrival who 
 would help him on to Riigen. But he found the 
 place as though under a spell of enchantment; 
 everyone had gone to the country or somewhere 
 else. He had to take a room in an hotel and 
 telegraph first to Ilmarinen in Riigen, but the 
 latter answered that he had no money. Then he 
 telegraphed to Copenhagen and Christiania and 
 received similar answers. 
 
 He felt now as fh'ough he had been enticed 
 into a trap and overpowered. Since there had 
 been an outbreak of cholera the previous year 
 in Hamburg, they expected another when the 
 heat returned, and that was the case just now. 
 Therefore, if he did not get away soon, he had
 
 132 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 to expect, not death, to which he felt indifferent, 
 but the quarantine. 
 
 The days passed slowly with terrible monotony, 
 for he had no one to talk to, and with the 
 threatened cholera outbreak hanging over his 
 head. Helpless and in a perpetual rage against 
 some invisible foe who seemed to have a grudge 
 against him, he felt paralysed. He dared not 
 move a finger in order to alter his destiny, for he 
 feared failure and renewed disappointment of 
 his hopes. 
 
 In order to pass the time he studied historical 
 tables and wrote dates from morning to evening. 
 But the days were still terribly long, and after 
 four days he conceived a fixed idea that he would 
 never get away from this infernal town where 
 nothing but buying and selling went on. This 
 impression became so strong that he determined 
 to end his life in his uncanny bedroom. He 
 unpacked his things and put out the photographs 
 of his children and other relatives on the writing- 
 table. 
 
 Loneliness and torment made the time seem 
 double its real length. He began to be under the 
 illusion that he was a native of Hamburg; he 
 forgot for a while his past and the fact that he 
 was married or had lived anywhere else than 
 here. He regarded himself as a prisoner with
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 133 
 
 the weird feeling that he did not know what crime 
 he had committed, who had condemned him, or 
 who was his jailer. But the black spectre of 
 cholera haunted invisibly the dirty water of the 
 canals and watched for him. Three times a day 
 he asked the waiter about the cholera and always 
 received the same answer: " They are not sure 
 yet." 
 
 Then at last came a letter from his wife. She 
 cried aloud from longing, fear, and unrest, and 
 wished to know where he was. He answered in 
 the same tone and felt wild with rage at the 
 destiny which separated them. 
 
 On the morning of the fifth day he discovered 
 in a newspaper that his Danish friend lived only 
 half an hour's journey by rail from Hamburg. 
 
 If he had known that before, he would not 
 have been obliged to undergo all these sufferings. 
 Now, since he could not pay the hotel bill, he 
 resolved to depart at once and not to return. 
 His friend would give him money which he would 
 send to the hotel, and he would have his things 
 sent after him. He took his seat in the railway 
 carriage with the feelings of a liberated prisoner, 
 cast a pitying look on Hamburg and forgave the 
 injuries it had done him, but vowed never to 
 honour it with another visit, unless compelled. 
 
 His half -hour's journey put him in a good
 
 134 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 humour, and his mouth watered at the prospect 
 of being able to give expression to all his 
 vexation and perhaps to make light of his 
 martyrdom, and give it a comic aspect. His 
 divine frivolity returned, and he thought that 
 he must be after all a lucky fellow to find one of 
 his friends so unexpectedly. He stopped before 
 the comfortable little house; the landlord stood 
 in the doorway; he greeted him and asked if 
 Mr were at home. 
 
 " No; he went off this morning." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "To Denmark." 
 
 During the three hours which he had to wait 
 for the train he had time to get over the blow. 
 When he took his seat again in the train, he 
 thought : ' ' There is something wrong here ; it is 
 not the natural logic of events. It is certainly 
 something else." 
 
 Then the spires of Hamburg reappeared and 
 his hatred to the place awoke again, and rose 
 to an incredible height when he saw a coffin at 
 the station. ' Now the cholera is here," he 
 thought, ' ' and I shall be in quarantine for four- 
 teen days! " 
 
 But it was not the cholera, which was some- 
 thing to be thankful for. He did not feel so, 
 however, for he felt sure it would break out on
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 135 
 
 the same day that he received the money. And 
 he calculated that he would never get away from 
 Hamburg in this way. The money would delay 
 so long till the hotel bill, which grew in geo- 
 metrical progression, swallowed up the whole 
 amount, and nothing would be left for his 
 travelling expenses. In this way there would 
 be a sort of perpetual movement which might 
 last till the end of the world. 
 
 That his calculations were about correct was 
 proved two days later when the money really 
 came. He paid the bill, left the hotel in a cab, 
 and drove to the station; then a hotel servant 
 who had followed him expected a tip, and had, 
 besides, a little additional bill, probably falsified, 
 as usual. When he came to the booking-office 
 and inquired the price of the ticket, he was two 
 marks short. Accordingly he returned to the 
 hotel. 
 
 It is not necessary to linger over details in 
 order to give the reader a lively idea of what he 
 suffered. In short, his silence cure still lasted 
 some days; then he got away, and the cholera 
 had not yet broken out. 
 
 His object in going to Riigen was partly to seek 
 masculine society in order to get rid of the 
 feminine atmosphere which had enveloped him,
 
 136 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 and partly to settle matters with Ilmarinen; but 
 his chief purpose was probably to talk himself 
 out. That was precisely why, he thought, destiny 
 or whatever it was had relegated him to absolute 
 silence in Hamburg, for 'destiny" always 
 sought out his secret wishes in order to frus- 
 trate them. 
 
 When at last he reached Riigen, hoping to 
 have a good talk for half a night, he found 
 Ilmarinen altered, chilly in demeanour and 
 embarrassed. The latter had heard that his friend 
 had married a lady from a rich family, as indeed 
 was the fact, and therefore could not understand 
 this sudden come down. When the new-comer 
 asked whether they could have supper together, 
 the Finn excused himself by saying that he had 
 been invited to a birthday feast. 
 
 "I live, you know," he said, "with Lais's 
 oldest friend, the Swede, who was in love with 
 her, and who came last." 
 
 "Is/iehere?" 
 
 ' Yes, he lives here, since Lais engaged her- 
 self to the Russian who left his wife and 
 children." 
 
 ' * He hates me then also ? ' ' 
 ' Yes, to speak the truth, your presence will 
 certainly annoy him." 
 
 So he remained alone the first evening. Alone
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 137 
 
 after a long double loneliness with his wife and 
 with himself ! 
 
 He felt as though he were under some curse, 
 to be so treated by this insignificant, uncultivated 
 Ilmarinen whom he had lifted up from nothing- 
 ness, introduced to his own circle, fed and lodged, 
 because he executed business matters for him 
 with the theatres and publishers. This employ- 
 ment was partly an honour for the young 
 unknown author, and partly an advantage, for 
 it helped him to find openings for his own work. 
 Now the pupil abandoned the teacher, because 
 he thought there was nothing more to be gained 
 from him, and because he considered he could 
 now help himself. 
 
 The days which followed were now so dreadful, 
 that again the thought occurred to him that this 
 could not be natural, but that a black hand was 
 guiding his destiny. 
 
 Since there was only one restaurant in this 
 third-class watering-place, he had to sit at the 
 same table with his countryman, who attributed 
 to him the loss of Lais, and with Ilmarinen, who 
 assumed a superior tone, because he regarded him 
 as lost. Then the food resembled hog's flesh from 
 which all the goodness had been cooked out. 
 One rose hungry from table, and was hungry the 
 whole day. Everything was adulterated, even the
 
 138 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 beer. As regards the meat, the restaurant 
 keeper's family first cooked all the goodness out 
 of it for themselves; the customers only got the 
 sinews and bones, and were fed, in fact,, just 
 like dogs. Bitter looks, which his unfortunate 
 fellow-countryman could not quite suppress, did 
 not increase the imaginary pleasures of the table. 
 
 He spent a week in Riigen without hearing any- 
 thing from his wife in London. At hrst he had 
 found life on the island tolerable in contrast to 
 that in the Hamburg hotel; but when he woke 
 one day and reflected on his situation, it seemed 
 to him simply hellish. He had hired an attic 
 room and the sun beat fiercely on the iron plates 
 of the roof, which was only a foot above his head. 
 Sixteen years previously he had, as a young 
 bachelor, left his garret at the top of five flighis 
 of stairs, in order to enter a house as a married 
 man. Since that time it had been one of his 
 nightmares to find himself crawling up the five 
 flights of stairs to his old garret, where all the 
 wretchedness and untidiness of a bachelor's room 
 awaited him. Now he was again in an attic and 
 a bachelor, although married. That was like a 
 punishment after receiving warnings. But what 
 crime he had committed he could not say. 
 
 Moreover, the whole surrounding soil con- 
 sisted of light, loose sand, which had been so
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 139 
 
 heated by the suns of midsummer that it did not 
 become cool at night. It made one think at first 
 of the hot sand-girdles which peasants use to 
 cure inflammation of the lungs. Later on, after, 
 searching in his memory, he thought of the scene 
 in Dante's Inferno where the blasphemers lie 
 stretched out on hot sand. But as he did not 
 think he believed in any good God, it seemed to 
 him that blasphemies might be left unpunished. 
 
 After walking about for a week in the deep 
 sand, it seemed to him really a hellish torture to 
 have to take half a step backward for every one 
 forward, and to be obliged to lift the foot six 
 inches high in walking. Worst of all was the 
 feeling of sinking through the earth like the girl 
 in the fairy story who trod on bread. Never to 
 find a firm foothold, nor to be able to run a race 
 with one's thoughts, but to drag oneself about 
 like an old man that was hell. Besides this, 
 there was a heat in the air which never abated. 
 His attic was burning hot by day, and when he 
 lay in bed at night with nothing on, he was 
 scorched by the iron plates of the roof. The 
 nearness of the sea would naturally have helped 
 to relieve the heat, but that possibility had been 
 carefully guarded against, like everything else. 
 From his boyhood he had been accustomed to 
 cast himself head foremost into the water because
 
 140 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 he did not like creeping into it. In connection 
 with this also, he was persecuted by a frequently 
 recurring nightmare, i.e. he used to dream that 
 he was overheated and must plunge into the sea. 
 The sea was there but was so shallow that he 
 could not plunge into it, and when he did crawl 
 into it, it was still so shallow that he could not 
 duck his head. That was precisely the case here. 
 ' ' Have I come here for the fulfilment of all my 
 bad dreams? " he asked himself. 
 
 And with reason. Ilmarinen grew more 
 inquisitive every day; he asked when the 
 Norwegian's wife was coming, and when a fort- 
 night had passed, believed that she had quite 
 abandoned him. This, naturally, pleased Lais' s 
 friend, and nothing was wanting to complete the 
 Norwegian's hell. For there was something 
 very humiliating in his position as a discarded 
 husband. His correspondence with England had 
 assumed such an ominous character that he did 
 not know himself whether he was still married 
 or separated. In one of his wife's letters, she 
 dwelt on her inextinguishable love, the pain of 
 separation, and the martyrdom of longing. 
 They were, she said, Hero and Leander on 
 opposite sides of the sea, and if she could swim, 
 she would fly to her Leander, even at the risk 
 of being washed up on his island a corpse. In
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAX1) 141 
 
 her next letter she announced that she intended 
 opening a theatre in London, and was trying to 
 raise sufficient capital. At the same time she 
 could not find enough capital to buy a steamer- 
 ticket. A third letter contained the news that she 
 was ill, and was full of complaints that the 
 husband had left his sick wife in a foreign land. 
 A fourth letter said that she was in a convent 
 kept by English ladies, where she had been 
 educated, and where she found again her youth 
 and innocence; in it she also denounced the 
 wickedness of the world and the hell of 
 marriage. 
 
 It was impossible to give reasonable answers 
 to these letters, for they poured on him like hail 
 and crossed his own. If he wrote a gentle reply 
 he received a scolding letter in answer to a pre- 
 vious sharp one of his, and vice versa. Their 
 misunderstandings arrived at such a pitch that 
 they bordered on lunacy, and when he ceased to 
 write, she began to send telegrams. 
 
 This imbroglio lasted for a month, and during 
 that time he looked back with longing to the 
 hours he had spent in Hamburg ; they seemed to 
 him like memories of an indescribably happy time 
 when compared with this. 
 
 At last he was cut down from the gallows. A 
 letter came from his sister-in-law inviting him to
 
 142 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 his father-in-law's villa at Odense. His wife had 
 also been invited; and it was arranged that they 
 should meet again there. 
 
 Prepared for everything, even the worst, he 
 entered on this new stage of running the gauntlet. 
 The most curious of all his changes awaited him. 
 After having been a husband and father he was 
 to become a child again, be incorporated into a 
 family, and find another father and mother many 
 years after losing his own. The situation was 
 rendered more confused by the fact that his 
 father and mother-in-law had lived separate for 
 seven years, and now wished to come together 
 again on the occasion of their daughter's 
 marriage. 
 
 He had thus become a bond of union between 
 them, and since the daughter had also been at 
 variance with her father, the family meeting 
 promised to take the shape of a manifold recon- 
 ciliation. 
 
 But his own past was not exactly associated 
 with family reconciliations, and since he himself 
 had not a clean record the prospective idyll by
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 143 
 
 the Areskov Lake began to loom before him like 
 a cave of snakes. How was he to explain this 
 strange parting from his bride after only eight 
 weeks of marriage ? To allege pecuniary embar- 
 rassment would be the worst of all excuses, 
 because a son-in-law with money difficulties would 
 be regarded as an impostor or a legacy-hunter. 
 
 As he approached the meeting-place, he 
 became nervous, but at the last hour he saved 
 his courage, as usual, by reverting to the stand- 
 point of the author : " If I get no honour thereby, 
 I will at any rate get material for a chapter in 
 my novel." 
 
 He also regarded what happened to him from 
 another point of view that of the innocent 
 martyr. " I will see how far Destiny can go in 
 its meanness, and how much I can bear." When 
 the train stopped at the pretty little branch-line 
 station, he looked out, naturally enough, for 
 faces which sought his own. A young lady 
 leading a delicate-looking child by the hand 
 approached, asked his name, and introduced her- 
 self as his father-in-law's French governess. She 
 had been sent, she said, to meet him. 
 
 A pretty white village whose houses had high, 
 tent-like roofs and green shutters lay in a valley 
 surrounded by small hills, and enclosing a 
 beautiful lake, on the bank of which, outside the
 
 144 FAIR, HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 village, stood his father-in-law's house. On the 
 road under the lime-trees a bare-headed, white- 
 haired lady met him, embraced him and bade 
 him welcome. It was his wife's mother. He was 
 immediately conscious what a strange trans- 
 mission of feelings such a simple transaction as 
 marriage had seemed to him, might bring about. 
 She was his mother and he was her son. 
 
 ' I have known you long before you saw my 
 daughter," said the old lady, with the quavering 
 voice of a religious fanatic. ' ' And it is as though 
 I had expected you. There is much evil in your 
 writings, but your immorality is childish, your 
 views of women are correct, and your godlessness 
 is not your fault for He did not wish to make your 
 acquaintance, but now you will soon see Him 
 come. You have married a child of the world, 
 but you will not long remain with her when you 
 see how she pulls you down into the trivialities 
 of life. When you find yourself alone, you will 
 re-discover the first vocation of your youth." 
 
 This she said in the solemn and unembarrassed 
 manner of a sibyl, as though someone else spoke 
 through her and therefore she did not fear to 
 have said too much. 
 
 When the conversation returned to mundane 
 things, he asked after his father-in-law, whose 
 absence surprised him. She answered that he
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 145 
 
 was not here, but would come to-morrow. His 
 sister-in-law now appeared but she was chilly, 
 gloomy and conventional in demeanour. He had 
 thought her his friend and had hoped to find a 
 support in her presence, but perceived now that 
 that hope was vain, especially as she was going 
 to leave before her father came. Nothing more 
 was said about his own wife, and no one knew 
 whether she was coming or not. 
 
 Had he been enticed into a trap? he asked 
 himself, and was a court martial about to be 
 held here? Had his wife written complaints 
 against him from England? How was he to 
 interpret the situation? A mother-in-law who 
 almost advised him to be divorced, and spoke ill 
 of her child that was something very original ! 
 
 Meanwhile he was conducted into the villa. 
 It was a handsome stone building of two stories, 
 with many large rooms filled with ancient 
 furniture, tapestries, and ornaments. And this 
 house, which could easily contain two large 
 families, was occupied for only six weeks in the 
 year by the owner during his holidays; the rest 
 of the time it stood empty. This suggested 
 wealth, and gave the son-in-law the impression 
 that here, at any rate, one need not discuss 
 poverty its causes and its cure. 
 
 The day passed in conversation with his mother- 
 
 E
 
 146 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 in-law, who was unwearied in showing him 
 attention and kindness. She was inclined on 
 every occasion to lead the conversation to high 
 subjects; as a religious mystic she was disposed 
 to see the guiding hand of Providence every- 
 where. That led her to look at things in general 
 from a tolerant point of view, since she regards 
 people's actions as predestined. 
 
 In order to make himself agreeable in the most 
 usual way he placed himself at her point of view 
 and searched in his past for some premonitions 
 of coming events. 
 
 " Yes," answered the old lady, " I said already 
 that I had expected you ; one of those wild North- 
 men was to come and take my daughter. But 
 as you can guess, my husband was not delighted 
 at the prospect; he has a very violent temper 
 but is good at heart. You will have a hard tussle 
 with him at first, but it will soon be over, if only 
 you do not answer him. It is certainly fortunate 
 that your wife has not come, for he has a bone 
 to pick with her also." 
 
 "Also?" 
 
 " I don't mean anything bad; don't misunder- 
 stand me. It will be all right when his angry 
 fit is over." 
 
 "He will be angry then, anyhow, but I don't 
 understand why. I have acted in good faith, but
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 147 
 
 every man may sometimes fairly plead unmerited 
 misfortune." 
 
 "Oh, it will be all right! " 
 
 At last the evening ended and he went up to 
 his room. It had windows on three sides; there 
 were no outer blinds and the curtains could 
 not be drawn together. He felt himself under 
 observation, like a patient in quarantine. 
 
 When he lay in bed he had his father-in-law's 
 bust to contemplate; the face did not look 
 friendly but quite the reverse, and being lit from 
 below, it assumed all manner of unpleasing 
 expressions. 
 
 ' ' And to-morrow I am to be lectured by this 
 stranger who I have never seen; scolded like 
 a schoolboy because I have had misfortunes. 
 Well, I must put up with it, as with everything 
 else." 
 
 The next morning he woke up with a distinct 
 impression that he found himself in a pit of 
 snakes, into which Satan had enticed him. There- 
 fore it was impossible to flee, so he went out to 
 botanise and survey the landscape. He screwed 
 himself up into a frivolous, poetic mood and 
 thought what a thrilling situation it was; a 
 dramatic scene which no one had hitherto passed 
 through. 'It is my own," he said to himself, 
 though it should scorch my skin."
 
 148 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 Lunch-time came ; it was not exactly cheerful 
 at table and his father-in-law's empty place 
 seemed to threaten him. After lunch he went 
 up to his room to quiet his nerves and immediately 
 afterwards the Councillor's arrival was an- 
 nounced. 
 
 The Norwegian went down smiling, while 
 a chill ran through him at intervals. In the 
 veranda stood a man who looked about forty, 
 dressed like a young man, with laughing and 
 youthful eyes. What the Norwegian's own 
 demeanour was, he himself could not see, but 
 it must have made a favourable impression, for 
 his new relative greeted him respectfully, 
 apologised for the lateness of his arrival, said 
 kind things about his books, and asked him to 
 sit down. 
 
 However, he always addressed him with 
 "you " instead of the more intimate " thou." 
 Then he talked of politics ; he had just come from 
 Fredensborg. He spoke at length of this and 
 that person, apparently with the object of 
 observing his son-in-law, who sat mute and 
 attentive. Then he turned to his wife, asked 
 if she had anything to entertain their guest with, 
 and finally came back to him, asking if he wished 
 for anything. Without hesitating he stood up, 
 went near his father-in-law and said : " I have
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 149 
 
 only one wish, that my wife's father should call 
 me 'thou,'"* 
 
 There was a sudden gleam in the other's eyes, 
 he opened his arms and now the doubter felt the 
 same as he had when meeting his mother-in-law. 
 The invisible family-tie had been knit; he was 
 genuinely moved, and stood there transformed 
 into a child. 
 
 ' You are a good fellow," said his father-in- 
 law, " I have looked into your eyes." Then he 
 kissed him on both cheeks. " But," he continued, 
 
 ' you have got Maria, and you know what you 
 have got, as I hear. Be good enough never to 
 come and complain to me. If you cannot tame 
 her, you must let yourself be drawn along by 
 her. You have had your way; much good may 
 it do you ! ' 
 
 Then they drank coft'ee and talked like 
 relatives and old acquaintances. Then the 
 Councillor went to change his clothes in order to 
 go fishing. He returned in a summer suit of 
 white cashmere which made him look still younger 
 than before. The trousers had certainly belonged 
 to his Court uniform, and traces of gold thread 
 
 were still visible upon them, but that made 
 
 * Intimate friends thus address each other in Swedish.
 
 150 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 an impression on the Bohemian. Moreover, his 
 father-in-law offered him cigars which he had 
 been presented with by princes. 
 
 The Councillor had dined at Court and was now 
 going fishing with the anarchist. The latter felt 
 his conscience slightly uneasy as he had not long 
 previously admired the cleverness of some anar- 
 chists in forcing open money-safes. It was 
 strange ! But the Councillor spoke sympatheti- 
 cally of modern movements and of Scandinavian 
 literature in general. He was also thoroughly 
 acquainted with the terrible activity of his son- 
 in-law, so that the latter had no need to feel 
 embarrassed. He especially approved of his 
 views on the woman question and expressed his 
 opinion thus, ' ' You have written all that I wished 
 to write." 
 
 He was perhaps not quite serious, but he said 
 it at any rate. 
 
 Then they reached the stream. 
 
 ''Have you ever fished for perch? " asked his 
 father-in-law. 
 
 "No, "he replied. 
 
 " Then you had better help me." 
 
 The help consisted in placing the fish in a 
 basket and clearing the hook without injuring 
 the artificial fly. 
 
 Since everything requires practice, the son-
 
 FAIR HAYEN AND FOUL STRAND 161 
 
 in-law showed himself somewhat clumsy and got 
 scolded. But he had become so accustomed to 
 his new position that he found it quite natural, 
 just as natural as when he used to go fishing 
 formerly with his children. 
 
 At sunset the sport ceased, and the son-in-law 
 had the honour of carrying the fishing-rods, 
 basket, and fish home. 
 
 The evening was cheerful, and the Councillor 
 sent a telegram to London with travelling 
 expenses, telling the young wife to -come at 
 once. 
 
 ' That is for your sake," he said to his son- 
 in-law. In other words she had not been sent 
 for before, and he had therefore been enticed, 
 as one captures singing-birds. 
 
 " I have got well over it," he said to his 
 mother-in-law as he bade her good night. 
 
 "The worst is over, but it is not finished 
 yet." 
 
 " Do you think we shall both get a whipping?" 
 
 It was not the end yet by a long way. The 
 next morning he received a letter from London 
 in which she said farewell to him for ever (Lord 
 Byron !) because in the choice between her and 
 her parents, he had preferred the latter. Since 
 there was no choice in question, this was a piece 
 of nonsense which concealed something. Another
 
 152 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 letter, addressed to her mother, was to the same 
 effect but expressed more violently and con- 
 cluded by wishing her " good luck." Her 
 mother explained it thus. " She is jealous, fears 
 that you tell tales against her and find support 
 here; she is so self-willed that she cannot bear 
 even her parents over her. If you become good 
 friends with her father and mother, she feels 
 herself in a child's position with regard to you 
 also!" 
 
 This was possible but not quite natural, for she 
 ought to have rejoiced that he had made a con- 
 quest of her parents, and thus brought about a 
 reconciliation between her and tliem. 
 
 Her father became angry and serious; he 
 telegraphed an ultimatum and demanded an 
 answer. Now the sky was clouded and there were 
 no more smiles. The Norwegian feared a 
 collision if he remained here, and telegraphed to 
 his wife : " I am going to Copenhagen ; if you do 
 not come, I will seek for a divorce." But he 
 had to wait for an answer, and therefore he 
 remained. That night he could not sleep, for the 
 situation was grotesque enough to drive one to 
 despair. Suppose she agreed to a divorce, how 
 could the family-tie which had just been formed 
 be broken in a moment? What would he be then, 
 who had just entered into the family and received
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 153 
 
 their confidence? What would the old people 
 think ? Such a hasty breach could not take place 
 without some reason. 
 
 The next morning a telegram came from his 
 young wife who was in Holland. Since every- 
 thing was fated to go crazily this telegram was 
 so badly worded that it might mean ' ' I am com- 
 ing to you," or "I am going to Copenhagen to 
 meet you there." 
 
 This telegram became a bone of contention, 
 and for three whole days the old pair and their 
 son-in-law disputed over its interpretation. But 
 the young wife did not come. They listened to 
 the whistles of the steamboats, went down to 
 meet the trains, came back and discussed the 
 telegram again. They had no more quiet, and 
 could not carry on a conversation without turn- 
 ing their heads and listening. 
 
 The next day the father's patience was 
 exhausted, for a collateral circumstance came in 
 view, of great importance in his eyes the 
 unavoidable scandal. The whole village knew 
 that the son-in-law was there, but that his wife 
 had been lost and was sought for by telegram. 
 Her father therefore shut himself up all day, and 
 when he emerged began a ruthless discussion of 
 the economic problem. 
 
 ''Have you a sure income? " he asked.
 
 154 PAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 11 As sure as authors generally have," was 
 the answer. 
 
 ' Very well, then you must do like others, and 
 write for the papers." 
 
 " No paper will print my articles." 
 ' Then write them so that they can be 
 printed." 
 
 That was more than a sceptic and quietist 
 ought to have borne, but he bore it and kept 
 silence, firmly resolved rather to take a guitar 
 on his arm and go about as a wretched street- 
 singer rather than sell his soul. 
 
 The old man had himself been a novelist and 
 poet in his youth, but had been obliged to give 
 up the struggle in order to provide for his family. 
 He, therefore, had the right to say: "Do as I 
 have had to do." But on the other side he knew 
 by experience how hard such a sacrifice is. He 
 immediately felt sympathy with his son-in-law 
 and spoke friendly, encouraging words. The 
 next moment, however, his justified suspicions 
 awoke, and the memory of the sacrifice he had 
 once made made him bitter; he felt he must 
 trample on an unfortunate who had fallen under 
 his feet. When he saw how the other kept silent 
 and took everything quietly, an evil spirit 
 probably whispered to him that this man could 
 only bear everything so patiently because he
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 155 
 
 hoped some day to be heir in this house. Then 
 lie spoke of King Lear and his ungrateful 
 daughters who left the old man alone, waited 
 for his death, and robbed him of honour. So 
 the day passed, and when the son-in-law with- 
 drew, he was sent for to be whipped again. Since 
 he could put himself in other's places, and 
 understood how to suffer with them, he made 
 no attempt to defend himself. He could easily 
 imagine himself old and set aside, despised and 
 neglected by his children. ' You are right," lie 
 said, " but still I feel myself innocent." 
 
 On the evening of the third day after the dis- 
 patch of the London telegram his mother-in-law 
 came to him. "You must go early to-morrow 
 morning," she said, " for he cannot bear to see 
 you any more ! ' : 
 
 " Very well, I will go." 
 ' And if Maria comes now, she will not be 
 received." 
 
 ' ' Have you ever seen a man in such a position 
 as mine ? ' J 
 
 " No ; my husband grants that too ; it makes 
 him suffer to see such a worthy man as you in such 
 a position; he suffers on your account, and he 
 does not want to suffer. You know my thoughts 
 about it; it is no one's fault and not the fault 
 of circumstances; but you are fighting against
 
 156 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 another who pursues and pursues you till you are 
 so weary that you will be compelled to seek rest 
 in the only place where rest is to be found. In 
 me you will always have a friend, even if you are 
 divorced from my daughter, and I shall follow 
 the course of your destiny with my good wishes 
 and my prayers." 
 
 When alone in his room, he felt a certain relief 
 to think that to-morrow there would be an end 
 of this wretchedness which was among the worst 
 things he had experienced. In order to think of 
 something else, he took up a paper which proved 
 to be the official Court news. His eye flew over 
 the first page down to the feuilleton, where a 
 literary essay attracted his attention. He read 
 it, thinking that his father-in-law had written it. 
 At the first glance the article showed great 
 familiarity with literature, but it contained over- 
 confident judgments and was written in too arti- 
 ficial a style. Moreover, it surprised him by 
 displaying hostility to all modern literature (in- 
 cluding Scandinavian), while German literature 
 was pointed to with special emphasis as that which 
 set the tone to, and stood highest in the civilised 
 world. Germany always at the head ! 
 
 When he reached the end of the article, he saw 
 that it was signed by his wife ! Now he had 
 promised her never to read her articles and he
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 167 
 
 had kept this promise in order to avoid literary 
 discussions in his married life. The only reason 
 that her written sentiments were different from 
 those which she expressed in daily conversation 
 must be that she had to write so "in order to be 
 printed." What a double life this woman must 
 lead, appearing in Radical circles as an anarchist, 
 and in the Court paper as an old-fashioned Con- 
 servative ! How one could so change about he 
 did not understand, and he was too tired to try 
 to understand it. But that explained why she 
 could not understand his being without occupa- 
 tion while there were plenty of pens and paper. 
 
 This worldly wisdom, this old-fashioned style 
 seemed to suggest a bald head and spectacles 
 rather than a young, beautiful, laughing girl who 
 could lie on a sofa and eat sweetmeats like an 
 odalisque. 
 
 ' To think that people should be so com- 
 plicated ! " he said to himself. "It is inter- 
 esting at any rate ! I shall remember it next 
 time!' 1 And he fell asleep, thinking himself 
 considerably wiser after these experiences. 
 
 At seven o'clock he got up, called by a man 
 who was to take his things to the station. As his 
 mother-in-law had told him the train did not start 
 till nearlv eight, he made no hurrv, but dressed 
 
 9f <J * * ' 
 
 quietly and went down into the garden where he
 
 158 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 met her. They were standing and talking of 
 what lay before him when a rough, thundering 
 voice was heard from a window of the first story. 
 It was his father-in-law. 
 
 ' Haven't you gone yet? " 
 
 "No; the train doesn't go till quarter to 
 eight! " 
 
 " What idiot told you that? " 
 
 That he could not say, as it was his mother-in- 
 law. 
 
 ' Well, hurry on to the station and see when 
 the next train goes." 
 
 As the Norwegian hesitated, there came a sharp 
 ' Now ! " like the crack of a whip over a horse. 
 It was quite clear to him what he had to do now ; 
 he pressed his mother-in-law's hand and went. 
 His firm steps must have shown that they were 
 the opposite to those leading to the lion's cave,* 
 going out and away but never returning, for he 
 heard immediately the old man's voice in a 
 caressing, lamenting tone : " Axel ! " 
 
 It felt like a stab in the departer's breast, but 
 he had begun to move, and went on without look- 
 ing round. 
 
 He went down to the station, looked ostensibly 
 at the railway guide, asked about the next train 
 without listening to the answer, saw by the posi- 
 * Vide Horace,
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 159 
 
 tion of the sun which direction was north-east, 
 and struck into the nearest highway. He did this 
 all so quietly, as though he had long considered 
 the plan. Soon he found himself out in the 
 country, alone without a home, without baggage, 
 without an overcoat, and nothing but a walking- 
 stick in his hand. He felt angry with no one ; hi c 
 father-in-law was right, and his last call sounded 
 like an appeal for forgiveness for his bad temper. 
 Yes, he only felt guilty with regard to this man, 
 on whom he had brought shame and sorrow. 
 But in himself he felt innocent, for he had 
 only acted according to his obligations and 
 possibilities. 
 
 Meanwhile he was free and had left the worst 
 hell behind him; the sun shone, the landscape 
 lay green and open, he had the whole world before 
 him. He shook off the child's clothes which he 
 had worn for eight days, felt himself a man again, 
 and marched on. His plan was to reach a certain 
 place on foot; there to take a steamer, to 
 telegraph for his baggage and so to travel to 
 Copenhagen. 
 
 'The affair is really ludicrous," he said to 
 himself; " if it were nQt tragic for the old people. 
 It looks bad, but I have survived worse things. 
 I am a tramp ! Very good ! Then all claims to 
 honour and respect have ceased. It is soothing
 
 160 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 at all events to have nothing more to lose. 
 Hurrah!" 
 
 He marched into the next village like an old 
 soldier and ordered wine and tobacco. He felt 
 hilarious, and chatted with the innkeeper. Then 
 he went on again. But at intervals he became 
 sentimental ; thought of his mother-in-law's words 
 about the wild chase ; had to admit that there was 
 something uncanny about it, for he had never 
 yet experienced such a misfortune ; and if other 
 people noticed it, it could not be mere imagi- 
 nation. But that was nothing strange, for he had 
 had bad luck ever since he was a child. But 
 fancy placing a man in such a position ! He 
 would not even have treated an enemy with such 
 hellish cruelty. 
 
 Meanwhile he reached Odense, came to Korsor 
 and soon afterwards to Copenhagen. It was 
 evening and he sent a messenger to the family 
 where his wife generally stayed. Since she had 
 not come to the Arreskov Lake, she must be in 
 Copenhagen. On the visiting-card which he sent 
 he only wrote : ' ' A somewhat strange question : 
 where is my wife? ' 
 
 The man who has not waited for an hour and 
 a half on a pavement does not know how long 
 this time can be. But this interval of waiting 
 was abridged by the hope that after a silence-
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 161 
 
 cure of eight days in Hamburg, five weeks of 
 simple imprisonment at Riigen, and a week of the 
 nethermost hell at Fiinen, he would see his wife 
 again. After an hour and a half the messenger 
 returned with another visiting-card on which was 
 written: " She left this morning for Fiinen in 
 order to meet you/' 
 
 A miss again ! " I begin to find this monotonous 
 even when regarded as a plot,'' he said to himself. 
 
 If one had used it for the plan of a novel, the 
 reader would throw the book away and exclaim : 
 " No ! that is too thick ! And as a farce it isn't 
 cheerful enough! " 
 
 Nevertheless, it was a fact ! The next minute 
 he thought : ' ' My poor, unfortunate wife is 
 going straight into the lion's den. Now she will 
 get blows." For her father's anger was now 
 unbounded, and his mother-in-law had said 
 during the last days of his stay : " If she comes 
 now, he will beat her." Therefore he tele- 
 graphed to the old lady to say that his wife was 
 coming, and asked indulgence for her. 
 
 It would take four days for her to return. 
 In order not to remain in Copenhagen where his 
 wedding journey had been reported in the 
 papers, he stayed in a village outside the town 
 where an old friend of his lived with his family. 
 
 In the boarding-house where he stayed the 
 
 L
 
 162 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 same hog's-wash regime prevailed as in Riigen. 
 In two days he lost as much strength as though 
 he had had an attack of typhus. One chewed 
 till one's jaws were weary, went hungry to table, 
 and rose again tired and hungry. 
 
 His friend was not the same as before. 
 Rendered melancholy by disappointments he 
 seemed to find this a favourable opportunity to 
 display a visible satisfaction at seeing the well- 
 known author in such a sorry plight. His sym- 
 pathy took the heartiest, and at the same time 
 the most insulting forms. When the Norwegian 
 related his adventures on the wedding journey, 
 his hearer stared at him in such a way that he 
 made a hasty end of his narrative in order not to 
 be stigmatised as a liar. 
 
 The village was on marshy ground, and over- 
 shadowed by very old trees; one became 
 melancholy there without knowing why. When 
 he walked down one of the streets of the village 
 he was astonished to see people at the windows 
 regarding him furtively with wild, distracted 
 looks, and immediately afterwards shyly hiding 
 themselves behind the curtains. This disquieted 
 him and he wondered whether a false report had 
 been spread that he was mad. When he asked 
 his friend about it, the latter answered : " Don't 
 you know where you are? "
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 163 
 
 The question sounded strangely, and might 
 mean : ' ' Are you so confused that you have lost 
 consciousness? " 
 
 "I am in X " he answered, in order not 
 
 to betray his suspicion. 
 
 "And don't you know what X is? ' 
 
 "No!" 
 
 " It is simply a lunatic asylum ; the inhabitants 
 make a living by taking care of mad people." 
 And he laughed. 
 
 The Norwegian inquired no further, but he 
 asked himself: " Have they enticed me into a 
 trap in order to watch me? " 
 
 He had grounds for such a suspicion, for such 
 an occurrence had already happened in his life. 
 
 His whole existence now became a single effort 
 to show himself so ordinary in his way of think- 
 ing and normal in his behaviour, that nothing 
 ' unusual " might be noticed in him. He did not 
 dare to give vent to an original thought or to 
 utter a parodox, and whenever the temptation 
 came to narrate something of his wedding 
 journey he pinched his knee. 
 
 This continual fear of being watched depressed 
 him so much that he saw watching eyes every- 
 where, and thought he noticed traps laid for him 
 in questions where there were none. Sensitive 
 as he was, he believed that the whole village
 
 164 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 exhaled the contagious atmosphere of the luna- 
 tics ; he became depressed and feared to go mad 
 himself. But he did not attempt to go away, 
 partly because he feared being arrested at the 
 station, and partly because he had told his wife 
 to meet him at this village. 
 
 He had received letters from Arreskov, in which 
 his mother-in-law informed him what disquiet 
 and anxiety his disappearance had caused them. 
 His father-in-law, who well knew what he would 
 have done in the unfortunate man's place, had 
 immediately foreboded his suicide and wept 
 aloud. They had searched for him by the banks 
 of the lake and in the wood. . . . He stopped 
 reading the letter and felt his conscience prick 
 him. The good old man had wept ! How terrible 
 his lot must be, when the sight of it had that 
 effect on others ! The letter went on to say that 
 Maria had arrived, and that they would soon meet 
 again, if he only kept quiet, for she loved him. 
 This was a ray of light and it gave him strength to 
 endure this hell, where everyone looked askance 
 at his neighbour to see whether he were in his 
 senses. 
 
 But the two last days brought new tortures. 
 The Swede whom he had met in the Copenhagen 
 cafe had accepted an invitation to come to dinner. 
 The Norwegian went gladly to the station to meet
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 165 
 
 his best friend, who understood him better than 
 anyone else, and who, though poor himself, had 
 tried to make interest for him with rich people, 
 and to procure the help for him which he himself 
 could not obtain. But now he met a stranger who 
 looked at him coldly and treated him as a 
 stranger. There was no smile of recognition on 
 his part, no inquiry after the Norwegian's health 
 and especially no allusion to the past. 
 
 After dinner he took the host aside and asked : 
 ' Is the Swede angry with me ? ' 
 
 ; ' Angry ? No ! But you understand he has 
 now married Lais." 
 
 "Married?" 
 
 ' Yes, and therefore he does not like to be 
 reminded that she was your friend." 
 
 1 ' I understand that, but it is not my fault that 
 I was her friend before she knew that the Swede 
 was in existence." 
 
 "No, certainly not; but you have gossiped 
 about her." 
 
 ' ' I only said what everyone else said, since 
 it was no secret. She herself so boasted of her 
 conquests that they were bound to become 
 public." 
 
 ' Yes, but the fact is as I say." 
 
 The Swede remained in the hotel, and there- 
 fore the Norwegian was relegated to solitude.
 
 166 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 In order to while away the time he made use of 
 the flora of the neighbourhood in order to study 
 the biology of plants. For this purpose he 
 carried about with him on his walks a morphia 
 syringe, intending to see whether the plants were 
 sensitive to this nerve poison. He wished to 
 prove by experiment that they possess a sensi- 
 tive nervous system. 
 
 One afternoon he sat drinking a glass of wine 
 at a garden restaurant on the outskirts of the 
 village. Over his table hung the branches of an 
 apple-tree, laden with small red apples. These 
 were suitable for his purpose. Accordingly, he 
 stood on his chair, made an insertion with the 
 morphia syringe in the twig which bore the apple, 
 but pressed too hard, so that it fell. At that 
 instant he heard a cry and halloo from the wooded 
 slope behind him, and saw an angry man, followed 
 by his wife and child, come rushing towards 
 him with uplifted stick. " There ! I have him at 
 last ! " he cried. 
 
 Him! He was mistaken for an apple stealer 
 for whom they had been watching. 
 
 The Norwegian summoned all his Buddhistic 
 philosophy to his aid, got down from the chair, 
 and sat expecting to be led off by gendarmes as 
 he had been caught in the act. It was impossible 
 to explain his conduct, for none of the authorities
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 167 
 
 could approve such an eccentric act as the inocu- 
 lation of an apple-tree with morphia. 
 
 Meanwhile a minute passed while the angry 
 man was running along by a fence and entering 
 the enclosure. Like one condemned to death, 
 the Norwegian sat there awaiting a blow from 
 the stick as an earnest of what was to follow. He 
 was firmly resolved to die like a warrior, and 
 did not trouble to devise useless explanations, 
 but only thought : ' This is the most devilish 
 experience I have had in my whole terrible 
 life." 
 
 Sixty seconds are a long time but they pass 
 at last! 
 
 Whether it was the Norwegian's carefully 
 groomed exterior and expensive suit, the wine 
 and the best kind of cigarettes, or something 
 quite different which had a mollifying effect, the 
 angry man, who had certainly not had such a 
 stylish customer before, bared his head, and 
 only asked whether the gentleman had been 
 attended to. The Norwegian, answering politely, 
 noticed how the restaurant keeper stared at the 
 morphia syringe, the powder box and the glass 
 of water. 
 
 With the free-and-easy tone of a man of the 
 world, the Norwegian explained the embarrass- 
 ing situation: "I am a botanist, and was just
 
 168 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 about to make an experiment when you surprised 
 me in a very suspicious position." 
 
 " Pray, doctor, do as though you were in your 
 own house, and be quite at your ease," was the 
 reply. 
 
 After exchanging some remarks about the 
 weather, the restaurant keeper went indoors ; he 
 muttered something to the waitress which the 
 Norwegian thought he overheard. It caused him 
 to take his departure, but in a leisurely way. 
 " He thought I was one of the lunatics," he said 
 to himself. " That was my deliverance. I can't 
 come here again, however." 
 
 Several hours passed, but the impression of the 
 sixty seconds of humiliation and the lifted stick 
 still remained. ' That is not mischance; that is 
 something else," was his conclusion, as usual. 
 
 The next morning he took his walk and medi- 
 tated on his destiny. ' Why haven't you shot 
 yourself?" Let him say who can. One view 
 was that, finally, all difficulties are disentangled 
 and experience shows that the end is good. This 
 used to be called " hope," and by means of it one 
 warped one's ship half an ell farther, as with a 
 kedge anchor. Others maintained that it was 
 curiosity which supported people. They wanted 
 to see the sequel, just as when one reads a novel, 
 or sees a play.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 169 
 
 The Norwegian, for his part, had never found 
 an aim in life. Religion certainly said that one 
 should be improved here below, but he had only 
 seen himself forced into situations from which 
 he emerged worse than before. One certainly 
 became a little more tolerant towards one's 
 brother-men, but this tolerance strongly re- 
 sembled moral laxity. Those who smile indul- 
 gently at others' crimes are not far from being 
 criminals themselves. When in conversation it 
 was alleged that one should love one's fellowmen, 
 he used to deliver himself of his final sentiment 
 as follows : " I neither love them nor hate them ; 
 I put up with them as they put up with me." 
 
 The fact that he was never entirely crushed by 
 a sorrow sprang from his having an indistinct 
 suspicion that life had no complete reality, but 
 was a dream stage, and that our actions, even 
 the worst of them, were carried out under the 
 influence of some strong suggestive power other 
 than ourselves. He therefore felt himself to a 
 certain extent irresponsible. He did not deny 
 his badness, but knew also that in his innermost 
 being there was an upward, striving spirit which 
 suffered from the humiliation of being confined in 
 a human body. It was this inner personality 
 which possessed the sensitive conscience, which 
 could sometimes, to his alarm, press forward and
 
 170 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 become sentimental, weeping over his or her 
 wretchedness which of the two, it was hard to 
 say. Then his second self laughed at the foolish- 
 ness of the first, and this " divine frivolity," as 
 he called it, served him better than morbid 
 brooding. 
 
 When he came home from his work, he found 
 his door shut. Full of foreboding, he knocked 
 and uttered his own name. When the door 
 opened, his young, wild wife fell on his neck. 
 It seemed to him quite natural and simple, as 
 though he had left her two minutes before. She 
 spoke not a word of reproach, inquiry, or 
 explanation, but only this : ' ' Have you much 
 money or little? " 
 
 " Why do you ask that? " 
 
 ' ' Because I have much, and want a good 
 dinner in Copenhagen." 
 
 In this they were agreed, and such was their 
 reunion. And why not? Two months of tor- 
 ture were forgotten and obliterated as though 
 they had never been ; the disgrace of a separation 
 about which people had perhaps already gossiped, 
 had vanished. 
 
 ' ' If anyone asked me, ' ' he said, ' ' about what 
 we had quarrelled I would not be able to 
 remember." 
 
 " Nor I, either. But, therefore, we will never,
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 171 
 
 never part again. We must not separate for half 
 a day, or everything goes crazy." 
 
 This was certainly the wisest plan, he thought, 
 and so did she. And yet one recollection came 
 into his mind of Dover and another of London, 
 when they were not apart for a moment, and just 
 for that very reason everything went quite crazy. 
 But they must not be too particular. 
 
 ' And how is the old father? " he asked. 
 
 " Ah, he was so fond of you that I became 
 jealous." 
 
 ' I have noticed that. How did he receive 
 you?" 
 
 ' Well, I won't talk about that. But it was 
 for your sake, so I forgave him." Even at that 
 she could smile, as indeed she could at every- 
 thing. 
 
 Well then, we will feast to-day, and work 
 to-morrow. 
 
 VI 
 
 The autumn brought what the spring had 
 promised, but not fulfilled. They lived in a good 
 boarding-house, high up certainly, but with a 
 view over the sea. Each of them kept up a 
 slight intercourse with former friends so that they
 
 172 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 
 
 were not always tete-a-tete. The sun shone, 
 money came in, and life was easy. This lasted 
 for two unforgettable months without a cloud. 
 There was boundless confidence on both sides, 
 without a trace of jealousy. On one occasion, 
 when she had tried mischievously to arouse his, 
 he had said to her : " Don't play with madness ! 
 Be sure that with such play you only arouse my 
 abhorrence and my hatred at the same time, when 
 you introduce into my mental pictures of you 
 the image of another man." 
 
 But she herself was jealous, even of his male 
 friends, and drove Ilmarinen away. There 
 were ladies at the table d'hote, and each time 
 that he addressed one of them, she became so 
 indisposed that she had to get up and go. There 
 was no occasion to mistrust his faithfulness to 
 her, but her imperiousness was so boundless, that 
 she could not endure his imparting his thoughts 
 to another, man or woman. When she con- 
 ducted some business transactions for him with 
 publishers she exceeded her authority and acted 
 rather as his guardian than as his helper. He 
 had to warn her : ' ' Remember what I said ! If 
 you misuse the power I have given you, I will 
 overthrow you like a tyrant." He did not doubt 
 her goodwill but her want of insight and exagge- 
 rated ideas of his capacities caused him incon-
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STEAND 173 
 
 venience, and even loss of money. When he took 
 away from her the authority to act for him, she 
 behaved like a naughty child, brought every- 
 thing into confusion and threw it away as worth- 
 less. Accordingly, the way was prepared for the 
 inevitable result. 
 
 One Sunday morning they had a disagreement 
 on an important subject, and at last he had shut 
 the door between their two rooms. Then he went 
 out. On his return, he found a letter from his 
 wife saying she had gone to a family which they 
 knew in the country, and would be back in the 
 evening. In order to let her feel what solitude 
 is like he made an engagement for the evening 
 with some friends. The evening came. He 
 went out, but about ten o'clock, thinking it cruel 
 to remain longer, he returned home. When he 
 tried to open his door, he found it shut from 
 within. 
 
 " Aha! " he thought. " This is her plan to 
 make me listen to a curtain-lecture in her room.'* 
 He rang for the servant. ' Is my wife at 
 home?" 
 
 ' No, she came home at nine, but went out 
 again, in order to meet you, sir." 
 
 "Very well, open the door of my wife's 
 room." That was done, but the door of his 
 room remained locked, as he had locked it himself
 
 in the morning. Then he made his decision, 
 closed the outer door of the flat, and took posses- 
 sion of his wife's room. After an hour she came 
 and knocked. Her husband answered through 
 the closed door : c c You can take my room ; I 
 hope you can open it." 
 
 When she found she could not she began to 
 form suspicions and thought he had shut him- 
 self in with someone. She naturally would not 
 endure the scandal but sent for the police, on 
 the pretext that a thief had been there, and 
 perhaps was still in the room. The police came; 
 the Norwegian dressed himself and admitted 
 them, and they broke open the door between the 
 two rooms. At the same time the door leading 
 to the corridor was opened. A servantmaid said 
 she thought she had heard steps inside the room. 
 Before the open window stood a chair so placed 
 as though someone had stood on it in order to 
 climb on the roof. A thief then (or a woman) 
 had clambered on the roof. The police went on 
 it with lanterns, and some of the inmates of the 
 boarding-house followed. A shadow moved by 
 a chimney. A cry rose : " There he is ! ' The 
 police declared that they could not climb the 
 steep slate roof, and advised them to send for the 
 fire brigade. ' But that costs fifty crowns," 
 objected the Norwegian. His wife signed a
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 175 
 
 requisition for it, but her husband tore it in two. 
 Meanwhile a crowd had collected in the street; 
 the neighbouring roofs were also full of specta- 
 tors. A cry was raised : " There he is ! " They 
 had seized a fellow who had joined the searchers 
 with the good intention of catching the thief. A 
 maid recollected that in the afternoon a traveller 
 had arrived and was sleeping in a neighbouring 
 attic from which he could have easily got 
 into the room. The police made their way into 
 the attic, searched through his papers and found 
 nothing. All the attics were ransacked without 
 result, and at midnight the police departed. 
 
 Then the young wife wished to begin with a 
 whole series of explanations, but her husband 
 was tired of the whole nonsense and could 
 explain nothing. Therefore, since nothing more 
 was to be done, he carried his wife into her room 
 and shut the door between them for the second 
 time that day ! 
 
 This demoniacal adventure was never cleared 
 up. The Norwegian did not believe there had 
 been a thief, for nothing was missing from the 
 rooms ; he thought that his young wife, who had 
 seen many plays, had stuck something in the lock, 
 and that then devils had continued the perform- 
 ance of the comedy. He did not try to elicit 
 what his wife thought, for then he would have
 
 176 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 been entangled in a web of necessary lies. He 
 therefore made a stroke of erasure through the 
 whole affair. The next morning they were again 
 good friends, but not quite so good as before. 
 
 How disunion between a married pair arises 
 has not yet been explained. They love one 
 another, only flourish in each other's society, 
 have not different opinions, and suffer when they 
 are separated; their whole united self-interest 
 enjoins them to keep the peace, because it is they 
 especially who suffer when it is not kept. Never- 
 theless, a little cloud arises, one knows not 
 whence; all merits are transformed into faults, 
 beauty becomes ugliness and they confront each 
 other like two hissing snakes; they wish each 
 other miles away, although they know that if 
 they are separated for a moment there begins 
 the pain of longing, which is greater than any 
 other pain in life. 
 
 Here physiology and psychology are non- 
 plussed. Swedenborg in his " Conjugal Love " 
 is the only one who has even approached the 
 solution of the problem, and he has seen that for 
 that purpose higher factors must be taken into 
 consideration than come into the mental pur- 
 view of most people. 
 
 This is why a married pair who love each other 
 are obliged again and again to wonder why they
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 177 
 
 hate one another, i.e. why they flee one another 
 although they seek one another. Married people 
 who are slightly acquainted with Ganot's 
 "Physics" may note the resemblance of this 
 phenomenon to that of the electricised elder-pith 
 balls, but this will not make them either wiser or 
 happier. Love indeed presents all the symptoms 
 of lunacy, hallucination, or seeing beauty where 
 none exists; profoundest melancholy, varying 
 with extreme hilarity without any transition 
 stage; unreasonable hate; distortions of each 
 other's real opinions (so-called " misunderstand- 
 ings"); persecution mania, when one believes 
 the other is setting spies and laying snares ; some- 
 times indeed attempts on each other's life, especi- 
 ally with poison. All this has reasons which lie 
 below the surface. The question arises, whether 
 through a married pair's living together, the evil 
 thoughts of one, while still unripened, are not 
 quite clearly apprehended and interpreted by the 
 other, as though they had already entered into 
 consciousness, with the express purpose of being 
 carried into action. Nothing annoys a man more 
 than to have his secret thoughts read, and that 
 only a married pair can do to each other. They 
 cannot conceal their dark secrets; one antici- 
 pates the other's intentions, and therefore they 
 easily form the idea that they spy on each other, 
 
 M
 
 178 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 as indeed they actually do. Therefore they fear 
 no one's look so much as each other's, and are 
 so defenceless against one another. Each is 
 accompanied by a judge who condemns the evil 
 desire while yet in the germ, although no one is 
 answerable for his thoughts to the civic law. 
 
 Accordingly, in marrying, one enters into a 
 relation which stands a grade higher than 
 ordinary life, makes severer demands, more 
 exacting claims, and operates with more finely 
 developed spiritual resources. Therefore the 
 Christian Church made marriage a sacrament, 
 and regarded it rather as a purgatory than a 
 pleasure. Swedenborg in his explanation of it, 
 also inclines this way. 
 
 A married pair are ostensibly one, but cannot 
 be really so. As a punishment they are con- 
 demned to feel thorns when they wish to gather 
 roses. According to the proverb: " Omnia 
 vincit amor " the power of love is so boundless, 
 that if it were allowed uncontrolled sway, the 
 order of the universe would be endangered. It 
 is a crime to be happy, and therefore happiness 
 must be chastised. 
 
 Our frivolous friends must have felt something 
 of this, for when they had had a tiff, they recon- 
 ciled themselves without explanations and without 
 alleging reasons, as though it was not they who
 
 FAIR HAVEN ATO FOUL STRATH) 179 
 
 were to blame for the discord but a third unknown 
 person who had brought about all the confusion. 
 
 They did so on this occasion also, but the peace 
 did not last long. Some days afterwards an 
 indisputable fact was apparent, which in ordinary 
 marriages is accepted with mixed feelings, but in 
 this one met with decided disapproval. The wife 
 was beside herself : " Now you have ruined my 
 career ; I shall sink down to the level of a nurse 
 and how shall we support ourselves ? ' ' 
 
 There awoke in her a personal grudge against 
 her husband which degenerated into hatred. 
 She was an example of the " independent ' 
 woman who protests against the supposed in- 
 justice of Nature in assigning all the discomfort 
 to her. She forgets that this brief period of pain 
 is followed by an extreme and long-lasting joy 
 which is quite unknown to men. 
 
 Here reasonable considerations were naturally 
 of no avail, and when there were no more smiles, 
 the situation became serious. The scenes be- 
 tween them assumed a tragic character, and 
 just at this crisis an action was brought against 
 him for his last-published book, which was con- 
 fiscated at the same time. Autumn passed, and 
 one felt that the sun had gone. The cheerful 
 top-floor room changed into a never-tidied sick- 
 room became narrow.
 
 180 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 Her hatred increased continually; she could 
 not go into society, nor to theatres, and hardly 
 on the street. What most annoyed her was the 
 fact that the doctor who had been summoned to 
 declare that she had a dangerous disease, hitherto 
 unknown, only smiled, saying that all the symp- 
 toms were normal, and ordered soda-water. 
 Instead of an intelligent friend, the Norwegian 
 found a malicious, spoilt, unreasonable child at 
 his side, and longed to be out of all this wretched- 
 ness. All conversation ceased, and they only 
 carried on communications by writing. But there 
 is a kind of malice bordering on the disgraceful 
 and infamous, which is hard to define but easy to 
 recognise. That is the original sin in human 
 nature, the positive wish to injure without cause, 
 and without being justified in taking vengeance 
 or exacting retribution. This kind of malice is 
 hardly forgivable. 
 
 One day he received a scrap of paper on which 
 something was written which prevented him 
 going to her room again. Then came her ulti- 
 matum; she resolved to go to her relations the 
 next day. 
 
 " I wish you a happy journey," he answered. 
 In the dusk of the early morning a white form 
 stood by his bedside stretching out its arms 
 pleadingly for forgiveness. He did not move but
 
 FAIE HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 181 
 
 let it stand there. Then she fell to the ground, 
 and he let her lie, like an overthrown statue. 
 
 Whence the soft-hearted man, who was always 
 ready to forgive, derived this firmness, this 
 inhuman hardness, he could not understand, but 
 it seemed to him to be imposed on him from with- 
 out like a duty, or a fiery ordeal which he must 
 go through. He went to sleep again. Then he 
 awoke and dressed. He entered the empty room 
 and was conscious of the void. Everything was 
 irrevocably at an end ! 
 
 A severe agitation was needed to bring his ego 
 uppermost, and he resolved to drain a draught 
 which was unsurpassed for bitterness. He went 
 back to his native land, from which he had been 
 banished. 
 
 When he got on the steamer for Christiania, 
 he wrote a farewell letter to the captain, went on 
 deck with his revolver, and thought of finding his 
 grave in the Kattegat. Why did he not carry out 
 this intention ? Let him say who can ! At last 
 he found himself in a smaU provincial hotel. 
 But why had it to be precisely the one in which 
 Lais' s friends and relations lived and dominated 
 the social circle in which he must move? He 
 could only regard that as a mean stroke on the 
 part of Destiny, for on this occasion he was not 
 to blame at all.
 
 182 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 Meanwhile he sat as on an ant-heap in an alien 
 and hostile environment. For three days long 
 he asked himself : ' ' What have I got to do 
 here ? ' ' And he answered : ' ' What indeed have 
 you to do anywhere? ' So he remained. For 
 three days he asked himself : ' ' What have you to 
 do in life? " and questioned of the where, whence 
 and whither. As an answer, the revolver lay on 
 the table. 
 
 Hamburg, London, and Riigen began to shine 
 like pleasant memories in comparison with this 
 place of exile. It was so dreadful that he was 
 astonished at the inventiveness of Destiny 
 in devising new tortures which ever increased in 
 severity. His room in the hotel was a suicide's 
 room, i.e. a combination of discomfort and un- 
 canniness. He was again haunted by the old 
 idea he used to have : " I shall not get alive out 
 of this room; here I must end my days." His 
 capacity for hoping was exhausted. He seemed 
 to be dropping downwards towards the empty 
 void which began to close round him like the 
 last darkness. 
 
 On the fourth day he received a letter from 
 his sister-in-law in which she told him that his 
 little wife was going on well. At the same time 
 she proposed that he and his wife should spend 
 the winter in a little town in Alster, so that her
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 183 
 
 relations could now and then visit his wife 
 who, in her present condition, needed help and 
 advice. 
 
 It was, then, not at an end ! And these pains 
 of death had been endured in vain; he had not 
 needed them in order to be taught to miss his 
 wife. It was not over yet, and he began to live 
 again. 
 
 As a proof that he had completely come to 
 the end of himself it may be mentioned that the 
 papers in those days contained a notice of his 
 death. He wrote to contradict this in a vein of 
 gloomy irony. He was tormented for three days 
 more by having to run about to collect the 
 journey money. 
 
 When the train at last stopped at the little 
 station, he saw first of all his wife's pale face. 
 It looked certainly somewhat exhausted by 
 suffering, but beamed at the same time with 
 some of that glorifying radiance which mother- 
 hood bestows. When her eyes discovered him, 
 her face lit up. 
 
 "She loves me," he said to himself. And 
 he began to live again literally not figuratively. 
 
 :c Are you well?" he asked almost shyly. 
 'Yes I am," she whispered, burying like a 
 child her face in his great cloak and kissing the 
 edge of it.
 
 184 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 " What are you doing? What are you 
 doing? " 
 
 And she hid her face in his mantle in order 
 not to show the emotion, of which she was 
 always ashamed. 
 
 They had engaged two very inferior rooms; 
 one was dark and the other uncomfortable, 
 looking out on a factory. His wife worked in 
 the kitchen and resigned herself to her fate, for 
 her maternal feelings were aroused, though not 
 yet completely. He suffered when he saw her 
 toiling the whole day at the kitchen-range and 
 in the scullery, and sometimes felt a twinge of 
 conscience. 
 
 When he wished to help her to carry some- 
 thing heavy, she refused to be helped, for she 
 insisted strongly that he should not be seen 
 engaged in any feminine occupation, nor would 
 she allow him to wait on her or to do her any 
 small service. All storms were over now; a 
 quiet stillness prevailed; the days passed one 
 after the other in unvaried monotony. They 
 lived alone together and had no social inter- 
 course nor distractions. 
 
 But poverty came. The trial about his book 
 had frightened the publishers and theatres. But 
 the worst of all was that he could not write. 
 
 And what he could write, he did not wish to,
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 185 
 
 for the plot of the story affected a family to 
 whom he owed a debt of gratitude. Now when 
 he would soon have two families to provide 
 for, he trembled before the future with its 
 increased duties, for a growing dislike to exer- 
 cise his calling as an author had finally cul- 
 minated in disgust. 
 
 What an occupation to flay his fellow- 
 creatures and offer their skins for sale. Like a 
 hunter who, when pressed hard by hunger, cuts 
 off his dog's tail, eats the flesh, and gives the 
 bone its own bone to the dog. What an 
 occupation to spy out people's secrets, expose 
 the birth-marks of his best friend, dissect his 
 wife like a rabbit for vivisection, and act like a 
 Croat, cutting down, violating, burning, and 
 selling. Fie ! 
 
 In despair he sat down and wrote from his 
 notes a survey of the most important epochs of 
 the world's history. He hoped, or in his need 
 imagined that he might in this way strike out 
 a new path for himself as an historian, which 
 had been the dream of his youth, before he 
 became an author. 
 
 His wife knew what he was writing and that 
 it would bring in no money, but controlled her- 
 self; perhaps his ardent conviction had per- 
 suaded her that there was something in it. She
 
 186 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 did not complain, but on the contrary cheered 
 him up and offered to translate the work into 
 English. 
 
 A month passed, quiet, peaceful but melan- 
 choly. They felt that they were not enough for 
 each other in this absolute loneliness. They 
 lamented it but sought for no society. He, with 
 wider experience than hers, hoped that the child 
 on its arrival would be satisfying company for 
 them both. 
 
 Meanwhile poverty approached nearer. None 
 of his plays were performed or sold, and not one 
 of the hopes of spring had been realised. His 
 children by his first marriage clamoured for 
 money, and food began to be scarce in the house. 
 Then came deliverance in the form of an in- 
 vitation to spend the winter with his wife's 
 grandparents. 
 
 One evening in December they alighted at a 
 little station in Jutland, and drove through 
 woods and wild heath. Everything was new and 
 strange. In this house he was now to live as a 
 grandchild, just as during the past summer in 
 her father's house he had been for eight days 
 a child. 
 
 They reached the ferry in the twilight. The 
 drifting of the ice had begun, but the water had 
 also sunk so low that a sand-bank lay in the
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 187 
 
 middle of the stream, and there a new boat 
 waited for them. From thence a large, white, 
 three-storied house was visible; it looked 
 unfriendly, almost weird, with its projecting 
 wings and high, illuminated windows. 
 
 They reached the land and found themselves 
 immediately in the ghostly castle. They were 
 conducted up whitewashed stairs over which 
 hung dark oil-paintings in black frames. Then 
 he found himself in a warm, well-lighted room, 
 among her relatives, of whom he only knew his 
 mother-in-law. 
 
 With his incredible pliability, he immediately 
 adapted himself to his position, and behaved 
 like the young relation who under all circum- 
 stances must show reverence to his elders. 
 
 Here in the house his right of self-determin- 
 ation ceased; he must conform to other people's 
 views, wills, and habits. In order to spare him- 
 self unpleasantness, he had resolved beforehand 
 to have no more likes and dislikes of his own, 
 but to accept all that was offered to him, however 
 strange or repulsive it might appear. 
 
 The old grandfather was a notary and 
 barrister who had retired with considerable 
 wealth, and only managed his estate as far as 
 was necessary for domestic purposes and for his 
 own amusement. Most of his property con-
 
 sisted of hunting-ground and was in that state of 
 neglect which a townsman finds picturesque. He 
 and his wife were both over seventy, and seemed 
 only to be waiting for their end with the cheerful 
 resignation of good-natured, orthodox Catholics 
 who are free from care. They had already built 
 for themselves a mausoleum in the garden where 
 their bodies were to repose, and they were 
 accustomed to show it as other people show a 
 summer-house. It was a little whitewashed 
 chapel, with flowers planted round it, which 
 they used to tend as though they already stood 
 there in memory of them. 
 
 In the house there was a superfluity of good 
 things. After having been half-starved in Alster 
 here they found it difficult to avoid gluttony, 
 without vexing their host. Pheasants, hare, 
 venison were regular standing dishes which at 
 last became a weariness. " This is our punish- 
 ment," he said, " because we complained of the 
 manna; now we are stuffed with quails like the 
 murmuring Israelites so that it comes out at our 
 throats." 
 
 A stillness like that of old age supervened; 
 there was no need of care or anxiety in this 
 house where there were as many servants as 
 members of the family. It was easy to live with 
 the old people, who had outgrown special inter-
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 189 
 
 ests, views and passions, and the young pair, 
 who had their own rooms apart, only needed to 
 appear at meal-times. 
 
 The young wife was now altogether a mother, 
 talked of and with the unborn child as though 
 she knew it well; she was mild and womanly, 
 humble and even thankful towards her husband, 
 whose affections remained unaltered though her 
 shape was disfigured and her beauty faded. 
 
 " How beautiful life is! " she said. 
 
 ' ' Yes it is ; but how long will it last ? ' 
 
 "Hush!" 
 
 ' ' I will be silent ! But you know that happi- 
 ness is punished." 
 
 No one asked what he was working at ; on the 
 contrary all that he heard was : ' You should 
 do nothing but take a thorough rest after your 
 wild rushing about." 
 
 Accordingly he sent for some books which 
 had been given him some years previously by a 
 rich man and which he had been obliged to send 
 back home. Then he began a series of syste- 
 matic investigations, studied and made notes. 
 He felt a new life and fresh interests awaken; 
 and when he now found his former hypothesis 
 and calculations verified by synthesis and 
 analysis he became certain that he was working 
 by a sure method, and in the right way. This
 
 190 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STBAND 
 
 gave him such confidence that he felt justified 
 in pursuing his investigations, but because he 
 could not explain their significance to the 
 uninitiated, his position became somewhat in- 
 secure. People had to take him on good faith; 
 they did that so long as peace prevailed, but at 
 the first sign of antipathy he would be helplessly 
 exposed to the ridicule or contemptuous pity of 
 the bystanders. 
 
 The grandfather was a cultivated man, and 
 therefore curious to know what was going on in 
 the young pair's rooms. When he inquired, he 
 received evasive answers, but since he had been 
 a magistrate and barrister, he required definite- 
 ness. When he heard what the Norwegian's 
 investigations were concerned with, he confuted 
 them with the authority of the text books. In 
 order to put an end to fruitless strife, his young 
 relative let him believe he was right. But the 
 old man tried to provoke him into contradiction, 
 assumed a superior air and became intrusive. 
 He was allowed to be so for the present. 
 
 "Nothing for nothing!" thought the Nor- 
 wegian. His wife thanked him for his yielding- 
 ness and admired his self-control. But discord 
 was fated to come, and it came. 
 
 The lawsuit in Copenhagen about his book 
 extended its operations here also, and one day
 
 FAIK HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 191 
 
 a court officer came to summon him to appear as 
 defendant in the court of the nearest town. 
 Since he had from the beginning challenged the 
 jurisdiction of the Copenhagen court, because as 
 a Norwegian writer he was not responsible to a 
 Danish court, on account of a translation; and 
 since he regarded the whole proceedings as 
 illegal, which indeed they were, he refused to 
 appear. The old man on the other hand in- 
 sisted that he should do so, especially, perhaps, 
 because he did not like to see gendarmes coming 
 to his house. 
 
 To put an end to the matter, the Norwegian 
 really resolved one morning to go and present 
 his challenge personally in court. 
 
 He therefore went at eight o'clock and 
 followed the beautiful walk along the river. 
 But about half-way he met the postman and 
 received, by paying cash on its delivery, a 
 long-expected book. This book was extremely 
 expensive, and since he had no money, he had 
 been obliged to devise a plan in order to secure 
 it. After thinking about it for a month, he 
 remembered that he had some valuables stowed 
 away in a box in an attic in Norway. He there- 
 fore wrote to a friend and asked him to sell the 
 things for a price equivalent to the purchase of 
 the expensive book, to change the money into
 
 192 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 notes and to send them in an unregistered letter 
 so that no one might know of it. He did this 
 because he felt he was stealing from his wife 
 and family, but it had to be done, as he wished 
 to solve an important problem. As he now held 
 the long-desired means for doing so in his hand, 
 he felt a lightning flash in his soul, and turned 
 home without thinking. 
 
 :< Now, I will finish the business," he said to 
 himself; " the gendarmes can come afterwards." 
 
 As he entered the courtyard the old man stood 
 there, cutting up a deer which he had shot. The 
 Norwegian sought to slip past him unperceived, 
 but did not succeed. 
 
 "Have you already been to the judge?' 3 
 asked the old man sceptically. 
 
 ''No," answered the Norwegian curtly, and 
 hurried through the house-door. He ran up the 
 stairs to his room and bolted the door. Then he 
 sat down to study. After half an hour he said to 
 himself: "Is the greatest problem of modern 
 times solved? ' There was a knock at the door, 
 and then another hard and decided. He was 
 obliged to open it in order to get quiet. 
 
 " Why don't you go to the judge? " asked 
 the old man. 
 
 "That's nothing to do with you," he answered 
 and slammed the door to with a sound like a shot,
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 193 
 
 But now there was no more peace for him ! He 
 felt that a crisis had come in his destiny, and he 
 heard voices below. His hand trembled, he felt 
 as though paralysed and closed the book which 
 contained what he sought. At the same mo- 
 ment he lost confidence and dared not face 
 what seemed a contradictory proof of his 
 theory. 
 
 After some minutes his mother-in-law came. 
 She was not angry, but found it unpleasant to 
 have to tell him that he and his wife must leave 
 the house at once, before dinner. They could 
 have her little one-storied cottage at the bottom 
 of the garden and have their meals sent from the 
 house. His little wife appeared and danced with 
 joy at the thought that they would have a little 
 house of their own, especially with a garden and 
 park round it. 
 
 The change took place, and now in this cottage 
 began the two happiest months in the life of the 
 married pair. Their cottage of grey stone, with 
 little iron-barred windows framed in sandstone, 
 was quite idyllic. It was built in convent style 
 and covered with vine-creepers. The walls of 
 the rooms were painted white, without any 
 hangings, and the low ceilings were supported 
 by thick beams black with age. 
 
 He had a little room constructed like a real 
 
 V
 
 194 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 monk's cell, narrow and long with a single small 
 window at the end. The walls were so thick that 
 flower-pots could stand outside in front of the 
 window, as well as inside on the window-ledge. 
 The furniture was old-fashioned and suited its 
 surroundings. Here he arranged his library, 
 and never had he felt so comfortable before. 
 
 But now they had to prepare for the coming 
 of the child. Husband and wife painted the 
 window-sills and doors. Roses and clematis 
 were planted before the cottage. The garden 
 was dug up and sown. In order to fill up the 
 blank spaces of the great white walls, he painted 
 pictures on them. When all was ready they sat 
 down and admired the work of their hands. 
 "It is splendid," they said; " and now we can 
 receive the child. Think how pleased it will be, 
 to see so many pictures the first day ! ' 
 
 They waited and hoped; during the long 
 spring evenings they only talked of him or her, 
 guessed which it would be, discussed what name 
 it should have, and speculated on its future. 
 His wife's thoughts for the most part were 
 occupied in wondering whether it would be fair 
 and resemble his boy, whom she loved. She 
 and her family were especially fond of fair 
 people, whether because they resembled light, 
 while the dusky-complexioned reminded one
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 195 
 
 of darkness, would be difficult to say. They 
 believed everything good of fair people and 
 spoke ill of the Jews, although the little wife's 
 grandmother on the paternal side was a Jewess ; 
 among her maternal relations who sprang from 
 Schleswig-Holstein peasantry the word ' ' Jew ' 
 was used as a term of reproach. The Norwe- 
 gian's father-in-law was an anti-Semite but when 
 he joked at the paradox involved in this, his wife 
 said : " You must not joke at it; we will do that 
 ourselves." 
 
 At last one day in May as the sun rose, the 
 coming of the unknown traveller was heralded, 
 and after twelve terrible hours it proved to be a 
 girl who at any rate was not dark-haired. 
 
 This ought to have completed the idyll, but it 
 seemed, on the contrary, to put an end to it. 
 The little one did not seem to thrive in this 
 vale of tears, but cried day and night. Nurses 
 were engaged and nurses were dismissed. Five 
 women filled the house and each had different 
 views as to the rearing of the child. The father 
 went about like a criminal and was always in the 
 way. His wife thought that he did not love the 
 child and this vexed her so much as to make 
 her suffer. At the same time she herself was 
 completely transformed into a mother to the 
 exclusion of everything else. She had the child
 
 196 FAIK HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 
 
 in her own bed, and could spend the greater part 
 of the night sitting on a chair absorbed in con- 
 templation of its beauty as it slept. Her husband 
 had also to come sometimes and join in her 
 admiration, but he thought the mother most 
 beautiful in those moments when she forgot 
 herself and gazed ecstatically at her child with a 
 happy smile. 
 
 But a storm approached from without. The 
 people of the neighbourhood were superstitious, 
 and the child's continual crying had given rise to 
 gossip. They began to ask whether it had been 
 baptised. 
 
 According to law the child should be baptised 
 in the father's religion, but since both he and the 
 mother were indifferent in the matter, the bap- 
 tism was postponed as something of no impor- 
 tance, especially as there was no Catholic priest 
 in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The child's crying was really not normal, and 
 as the popular opinion of the neighbourhood 
 began to find expression, the grandmother came 
 and asked them to have it baptised. " People 
 are murmuring," she said; "and they have 
 already threatened to stone your cottage." 
 
 The young unbelievers did not credit this, but 
 smiled. The murmurings, however, increased; 
 it was alleged that a peasant woman had seen the
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 19T 
 
 devil in the garden, and that the foreign gentle- 
 man was an atheist. There was some founda- 
 tion for this report, for people who met the two 
 heretics on the roads turned away. At 
 last there came an ultimatum from the old man. 
 " The child must receive Catholic baptism 
 within twenty-four hours or the family will be 
 deported across the Belt." 
 
 The Norwegian answered : ' ' We Protestants 
 are very tolerant in our belief, but if it is made 
 a financial matter, we can be as fanatical as some 
 Catholics." The position was serious, for the 
 young pair had not a penny for travelling 
 expenses. His letter was answered with a simple 
 " Then go! " 
 
 The Norwegian replied : " To be a martyr for 
 a faith which one does not possess is somewhat 
 fantastic, and I did not expect that we should 
 play the Thirty Years War over again down 
 here. But look out! The Norwegian will come 
 and take his daughter off with his baggage, for 
 he is a Norwegian subject." 
 
 The grandees in the large house began to take 
 a milder tone, but consulted and devised a 
 stratagem. The child was announced to be ill 
 and became worse every day. At last the grand- 
 mother came with her retinue and told the father 
 that the child could live no longer, but he did not
 
 198 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STKAND 
 
 believe it. On his return from a long walk in 
 the woods the same day he was met by his wife 
 with the news that the child had received dis- 
 cretionary baptism at the hands of the midwife 
 in the presence of the doctor. 
 
 ' Into which faith has the child been bap- 
 tised ? ' ' asked the father. 
 
 'The Protestant, of course." 
 
 " But I don't see how a Catholic midwife can 
 give Protestant baptism." But as he saw that 
 his wife was privy to the plot, he said no more. 
 The next day the child was well, and there 
 was no more talk of expelling the family. The 
 grandees had conquered. Jesuits ! 
 
 The child, which had been expected to unite 
 the pair more closely to each other, seemed 
 to have come to separate them. The mother 
 thought the father cold towards the little one. 
 "You don't love your child," she said. 
 
 'Yes I do, but as a father," he replied. 
 "You should love her as a mother. That is 
 the difference." 
 
 The fact was that he feared to attach himself 
 too closely to the newly born, for he felt that a 
 separation from the mother was in the air, and 
 to be tied to her by means of the child he felt to 
 be a fetter. 
 
 She on her side did not know exactly how she
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 199 
 
 wished to have it. If he loved the child, it might 
 happen that he would take it from her when he 
 went away ; if he did not love it, he would simply 
 go by himself. For that he would go she 
 felt sure. He had had a dramatic success at 
 Paris in the spring, and another play of his 
 was announced for the autumn. He therefore 
 wished to go there, and so did she, but the child 
 hindered her movements, and if he went alone 
 to Paris, she felt she would never see him again. 
 Many letters with French postmarks came for 
 him now, and these roused her curiosity, for he 
 burnt them at once. This last circumstance, 
 which was quite contrary to his habit, aroused 
 her suspicion and hatred. 
 
 * You are preparing for a journey? " she said 
 one evening. 
 
 " Yes, naturally," he answered. "I cannot 
 live in this uncertainty; I might be put out on 
 the high road at any time." 
 
 " You think of deserting us? " 
 ' I must leave you in order to do my busi- 
 ness in Paris. A business journey is not deser- 
 tion." 
 
 "Yes, then you can go," she said, betraying 
 herself. 
 
 " I shall go as soon as I get the money for 
 which I am waiting."
 
 Now the Fury in her reappeared. First of all 
 he had to move up into an attic, and although 
 she and the child had the use of two rooms, she 
 deliberately spoilt the remaining third room 
 which was the dining-room and contained 
 specially good furniture. She tore down the 
 curtains, took away the pictures, choked up the 
 room with child's clothes and milk bottles with 
 the sole purpose of showing him who was master 
 in the house. The rooms looked now as though 
 demons had dwelt in them; crockery, kitchen 
 utensils, and children's clothes were strewn on 
 the beds and sofas. 
 
 She dished up bad meals and the food was 
 often burnt. One day she set before him a 
 plate of bones which the dogs seemed to have 
 gnawed, and a water bottle. This last was 
 an expression of the greatest contempt, for the 
 cellars were full of beer, and no servant ever 
 engaged himself without stipulating that he 
 should have beer at meals. Accordingly he 
 was reckoned beneath the men and maidservants. 
 But he kept patient and silent, for he knew that 
 the journey money would arrive. This, how- 
 ever, did not prevent his disgust rising to an 
 equal height with her hatred. 
 
 He lived now in dirt, destitution, and 
 wretchedness; heard nothing but scolding and
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 201 
 
 shrieking between his wife and the nurse, his 
 wife and the maidservant, his wife and her 
 mother, while the child cried continually. He 
 had an attack of fever and inflammation of the 
 throat, and lay on his bed in the attic. She did 
 not believe that he was ill and let him lie there. 
 On the third day he sent for the doctor, for he 
 could not even drink water. Then his Fury 
 appeared in the doorway. ' Have you sent for 
 the doctor? " she asked. ' Do you know what 
 that costs? " 
 
 "Anyhow it will be cheaper than a funeral, 
 and it may be diphtheria, which is dangerous 
 for the child." 
 
 " Do you think of the child? " 
 
 " Yes, a little." 
 
 If she could now have dropped him into the 
 sea, she would have done it. But she treated 
 him as though he had the plague. The child, 
 her child, was in danger ! 
 
 ' I have experienced much," he said in a 
 whisper, ' ' but never have I seen such intense 
 malice in anyone." And he wept, perhaps for 
 the first time in twenty years; wept over her 
 unworthiness, and perhaps also over his fate and 
 his humiliation. When he regarded his position 
 objectively it seemed monstrous that he, a 
 distinguished man in his own line, should,
 
 202 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 without fault of his own, lead such a wretched 
 life that even the maidservant pitied him. Since 
 he had entered his relative's house, his behaviour, 
 had been unimpeachable. He did not even 
 drink, if only for the reason that there was 
 nothing to drink. Since his arrival, his plays 
 had met with success, but instead of making him 
 more respected, as success generally does in 
 the case of ordinary mortals, it only tended to 
 deepen hatred and studied contempt. The fact 
 that he had accepted hospitality from very rich 
 relatives was not bound to weigh heavily on his 
 mind, for he was now legal heir to half the 
 property. But as hate now raged, he was told 
 what his expenses were, and mention was made 
 of payment. 
 
 Again the idea he had formerly had recurred 
 to him, that there was something more than 
 natural in all this, and that an unseen hand was 
 controlling his destiny. The inexplicable non- 
 arrival of the journey money seemed especially 
 designed to prolong his sufferings. When other 
 letters, which he looked for, did not come, he 
 began to suspect that his wife had a finger in the 
 matter. He began to watch the mail-bag which 
 the postman brought, and to write to the post 
 office; naturally, the only result was further 
 ignominy.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 208 
 
 Without having any definite belief, he found 
 himself in a kind of religious crisis. He felt how 
 he sank in this environment where everything 
 hinged on the material and only the animal side 
 of things was prominent food and excrement, 
 nurses regarded as milch cows, cooks and decay- 
 ing vegetables; then endless discussions and the 
 display of physical necessities which are usually 
 concealed. At the same time excessively heavy 
 rain had flooded a corridor and two rooms; the 
 water could not be drained off but stagnated 
 and stank. The garden went to ruin as no one 
 looked after it. 
 
 Then he longed that he could get far away, 
 somewhere where there was light and purity, 
 peace, love, and reconciliation. He dreamed 
 again his old dream of a convent within whose 
 walls he might be sheltered from the world's 
 temptations and filth, where he might forget 
 and be forgotten. But he lacked faith and the 
 capacity for obedience. 
 
 Literature at that period had been long 
 haunted by this idea of a convent. In Berlin 
 the suggestion had been made to found a con- 
 vent without a creed for the " intellectuals." 
 These at a time when industrial and economical 
 questions took the first place, were uncomfort- 
 able in the dense atmosphere of a materialism
 
 204 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 which they themselves had been seduced into 
 preaching. He now wrote to a rich friend of 
 his in Paris regarding the founding of such a 
 convent; drew up a plan for the building, laid 
 down rules, and went into details regarding the 
 ccenobitic life and tasks of the convent brothers. 
 This was in August, 1894. The object pro- 
 posed was the education of man to superman 
 through asceticism, meditation, and the practice 
 of science, literature, and art. Religion was 
 not mentioned, for one did not know what the 
 religion of the future would be, or whether it 
 would possess one at all. 
 
 His wife noticed that he was becoming separ- 
 ated from her, but she believed that he was 
 thinking of Paris with its vanities and distrac- 
 tions, its theatres and cafes, gallant adventures 
 and thirst for gold. His possible plans excited 
 her fear and envy. As regards his historical 
 studies, her supercilious smiling had ceased after 
 he had received words of encouragement from 
 a great German and a famous French authority, 
 and naturally had been obliged to show their 
 letters in order to protect himself. Since she 
 could no longer criticise his ideas she carried 
 the strife on to another ground and began to 
 plague him with insidious questions as to how 
 much he earned by his historical studies.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 205 
 
 When his wife was angry she went to the old 
 people and narrated all the small and great 
 secrets which a married pair have between 
 themselves; she also repeated what he in 
 moments of irritation had said about them. She 
 was sorry afterwards, but then it was too late. 
 The spirit of discord was aroused, and the storm 
 could no longer be allayed. 
 
 When he happened to have money and offered 
 to contribute towards domestic expenses, they 
 were annoyed at his want of tact in wishing to 
 pay rich relatives for inviting him ; when he had 
 no money then they uttered jeremiads over the 
 dearness of everything and sent him the doctor's 
 bill. In a word, nothing could be done with 
 such uncontrolled and incorrigible people. 
 
 He often thought of going on foot and seeking 
 some fellow-countrymen with whose help he 
 might proceed farther. But every time he made 
 the attempt he turned back, as though he had 
 been enchanted and spellbound, to the little 
 stream where the cottage stood. He had spent 
 some happy days there, and the memory of these 
 held him fast. Moreover, he was thankful for 
 the past and felt love to the child, though he 
 dared not show it, for then the little one would 
 have become a lime-twig to fetter his wings. 
 
 One day he had taken a longer walk than
 
 206 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 usual among the picturesque flooded meadows 
 where the deer sported; the pheasants shot out 
 of the bushes like rockets, their feathers shining 
 with a metallic gleam; the storks fished in the 
 marsh and the loriots piped in the poplars. Here 
 he felt well, for it was a lonely landscape where 
 no one ventured to build a house for fear of the 
 great floods. 
 
 For three-quarters of a year he had come here 
 alone every morning. He did not even let his 
 wife accompany him, for he wished to have this 
 landscape for himself, to see it exclusively with 
 his eyes, and to hear no one else's voice there. 
 If he ever saw this horizon again, he did not 
 wish to be reminded of anyone else. 
 
 Here, accordingly, he was accustomed to find 
 himself again himself and no one else. Here he 
 obtained his great thoughts and here he held 
 his devotions. The incomprehensible events of 
 the last weeks and his deep suffering had caused 
 him to change the word " destiny" for " Pro- 
 vidence," meaning thereby that a conscious 
 personal Being guided his course. In order to 
 have a name, he now called himself a Providen- 
 tialist in pther words he believed in God with- 
 out being able to define more distinctly what he 
 meant by that belief. 
 
 To-day he felt a pang of melancholy shoot
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 207 
 
 through him as though he were saying farewell 
 to these meadows and thickets. Something was 
 impending which he foreboded and feared. 
 
 On coming home, he found the house empty ; 
 his wife and child were gone. When he at last 
 discovered the maidservant and asked where 
 his wife was, she answered impertinently : " She 
 has gone away." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "To Odense." 
 
 He did not know whether he believed it or 
 not. But he found a great charm in the silence 
 and emptiness. He breathed unpoisoned air, 
 enjoyed the solitude, and went to his work with 
 the imperturbable calm of a Buddha. His 
 travelling-bag was already packed, and the 
 journey money might come any day. 
 
 The afternoon passed. As he looked out of the 
 window, he noticed an unusual stillness round 
 the great house ; none of the family were to be 
 seen. But a maidservant was going to and fro 
 between the cottage and the house as though she 
 were giving information. Once she asked if he 
 wished for anything. " I wish for nothing," he 
 answered. And that was the truth, for his last 
 wish to get out of all this misery had been ful- 
 filled without his having taken a step towards it. 
 He ate his supper alone and enjoyed it; then
 
 208 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 remained sitting at the table and smoked. His 
 mind accepted this fortunate equipoise of the 
 scales, ready to sink on whichever side it pleased. 
 He guarded himself from forming any wish, 
 fearing lest his wish might be crossed. 
 
 But he expected something. "If I know 
 women rightly," he said to himself, "she will 
 not be able to sleep to-night without sending a 
 messenger to see whether the victim is suffering 
 according to her calculations." 
 
 And sure enough his mother-in-law came. 
 "Good evening," she said; " are you sitting 
 here alone, my son? '' 
 
 With the stoicism of an Indian before the fire 
 which is to roast him, he answered : ' ' Yes, I am 
 sitting alone." 
 
 " And what are you thinking of doing now? " 
 
 "Of going, naturally." 
 ' You seem to take this matter very quietly." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Maria intends to seek for a separation." 
 
 " I can imagine it." 
 
 " Then you don't love her." 
 4 You wish that I should love her in order that 
 I may suffer more." 
 
 ' ' Can you suffer you ? ' J 
 ' You would be glad if I could." 
 ' When are you thinking of going? "
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 209 
 
 ' When I get the journey money." 
 
 ' You have said that so often." 
 
 ' You don't want to put me out on the high 
 road to-night? " 
 
 ' Grandmother is much excited." 
 ' Then she should read her evening prayers 
 attentively." 
 
 " One doesn't get far with you." 
 
 " No, why should I allow it? " 
 
 "Good night." Then she went. 
 
 He slept well and deeply as if after an event 
 which he had long expected. 
 
 The next morning he woke up with the dis- 
 tinct idea : " She has not gone; she is keeping 
 somewhere in the neighbourhood." 
 
 When he went out, he saw the maid getting into 
 the ferry-boat with some of the child's things. 
 
 "Ha, ha," then he understood. She was 
 waiting on the other side of the stream. The 
 maid came back soon, after he had watched her 
 manoeuvres on the other side through his opera- 
 glass. " If I only keep quiet now," he thought, 
 " the imperialists are routed." 
 
 His mother-in-law came and looked uneasy 
 but yielding. ' Well, now you are alone my son 
 and will never see her any more." 
 ' Is she then so far away ? ' ' 
 
 "Yes."
 
 210 FAIE HAVEN AND FOTTL STRAND 
 
 He laughed and looked over the water. 
 'Well," said the old woman, "since you 
 know it, go after her." 
 
 "No, I won't do that." 
 
 "But she won't come first." 
 
 " First or last, it is all the same to me." 
 
 The boat went to and fro with messages the 
 whole day. 
 
 In the afternoon his mother-in-law came 
 again. "You must take the first step," she 
 said. ' Maria is desperate and will be ill if you 
 don't write to her and ask her to come again." 
 
 ' ' How do you know that I want to have her 
 again? A wife who remains a night out of her 
 house has forfeited her conjugal rights and in- 
 jured her husband's honour." 
 
 This was an expected parry, and his mother- 
 in-law beat a sudden retreat. She crossed over in 
 the ferry-boat and remained there till evening. 
 He was sitting in his room and writing when 
 his wife entered with an air as though she were 
 sorry for his trouble and came in response to his 
 pressing call. He could have laid her prostrate 
 but did not do so, being magnanimous towards 
 the conquered. When he had his wife and child 
 back in the house he found it just as good 
 as when they were away, perhaps even a little 
 better.
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 211 
 
 In the evening the journey money came. His 
 position was now altered, and he had the keys 
 to the dungeon in his hand. At the same moment 
 his wife saw the matter from another point of 
 view. ' Do you know," she said, " this life is 
 killing me; I have not read a single book since 
 the child came, and I have not written an article 
 for a year. I will go with you to Paris." 
 
 " Let me go in front," he said, " and spy out 
 the land." 
 
 " Then I shall never get away." 
 
 He persuaded her to remain, without having 
 formed any distinct purpose of leaving her; he 
 only longed to feel himself free for a time at 
 any rate. 
 
 But she was now ready to leave her child, ' ' the 
 most important person of all," as she called it, 
 in order to come out into the world and play a 
 part there. She knew well that he was not going 
 to seek an uncertain fortune but to reap the 
 fruits of a success which he had already gained. 
 The ambitious and independent woman again 
 came into view, perhaps also the envious rival, 
 for she had moments in which she regarded her- 
 self as an author, superior to him. That was 
 when her friends in a letter had called her a 
 * genius ' ' ; this letter she left lying about that 
 it might be read.
 
 212 FAIR HAVEN ATO) FOUL STRAKD 
 
 Fortunately it was not possible for her to 
 travel just now, because her parents held her 
 back; she had to content herself with the fact 
 that he, who might be considered as expelled, 
 was leaving her. She became mild, emotional, 
 and sensitive, so that the parting was really 
 painful. 
 
 So he went out into the world again. As the 
 steamer in the beautiful autumn evening worked 
 its way up the river, he saw again the cottage, 
 whose windows were lit up. All the evil and 
 ugliness he had seen there was now obliterated ; 
 he hardly felt a fleeting joy at having escaped 
 this prison in which he had suffered so terribly. 
 Only feelings of gratitude and melancholy pos- 
 sessed him. For a moment the bond which 
 united him to wife and child drew him so 
 strongly that he wanted to throw himself into the 
 water. But the steamer paddles made some 
 powerful forward strokes, the bond stretched 
 itself, stretched itself, and broke ! 
 
 ' That was an infernal story," exclaimed 
 the postmaster when the reading was over. 
 ' What can one say about it, except what you 
 yourself have said in it? But do you think, 
 generally speaking, that marriage will continue 
 to exist?"
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 213 
 
 ' Although I regard wif e L child and home as 
 desirable objects," answered the doctor, " I do 
 not think lifelong marriages will be long possible^ 
 for in our days the individual man or woman 
 is too egotistic and desirous of independence. 
 You see yourself the direction which social evo- 
 lution is taking. We hear of nothing but discon- 
 tent and divorce. I grant that conjugal life 
 demands consideration and yieldingness, but to 
 live suppressing one's innermost wishes in an 
 atmosphere of contradiction and contrariety, can 
 only end in producing Furies. You have been 
 married? " 
 
 The question came somewhat suddenly and the 
 answer was only given with hesitation : ' ' Yes, 
 I have been married but am not a widower." 
 
 " Divorced then? " 
 
 "Yes! and you?" 
 
 " Divorced." 
 
 ' ' If anyone asked us why, neither you nor I 
 could give a reason." 
 
 ' A reason no. I only know that if we had 
 continued to live together, I should have ended 
 as a homicide, and she as a murderess. Isn't 
 that enough? ' 
 
 "Quite enough." 
 
 And they took their supper.
 
 HERR BENGT'S WIFE
 
 HERE BENGT'S WIFE 
 
 ' WHAT is love? Desire, of course," the young 
 Count answered his old preceptor, as they both 
 sat below in the cabin and beguiled the time by 
 talking while waiting off Elfsnabben for a favour- 
 able wind for their journey to the University of 
 Prague. 
 
 "No, young sir," answered Magister 
 Franciscus Olai. ' Love is something quite 
 different and something more, which neither 
 high theology nor deep philosophy have been 
 able to express. Our over-wise time believes too 
 little, but that is because our fathers believed 
 too much. I was present at the beginning of this 
 period, young sir; I helped to pull down old 
 venerable buildings, ancient, decayed temples 
 of pride and selfishness; I tore pages out of the 
 holy books and pictures from the walls of the 
 churches; I was present, young sir, and helped 
 to shut up the convents, and to announce the 
 abolition of the old faith, but, sir, there are 
 
 things which all-powerful Nature herself has 
 
 217
 
 218 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 founded, and which we had better not attempt 
 to pull down. I wish to speak now of Amor or 
 Love, whose fire burns unquenchably when it is 
 rightly bestowed, but when wrongly, can soon 
 be quenched, or even turn to hate when things 
 go quite wrong." 
 
 ' When then is it rightly bestowed ? It cannot 
 be so very often," answered the Count, settling 
 himself more comfortably on the couch. 
 
 ' Often or not, love is like a flash from 
 heaven when it comes, and then it surpasses all 
 our will and all our understanding, but it is 
 different with different people, whether it lasts 
 or not. For in this respect men are born with 
 different dispositions and characters, like birds 
 or other creatures. Some are like the wood 
 grouse and black cock who must have a whole 
 seraglio like the grand Turk; why it is so we 
 know not, but it is so, and that is their nature. 
 Others are like the small birds which take a mate 
 for each year and then change. Others again 
 are amiable like doves and build their nests to- 
 gether for life, and when one of them dies, the 
 other no longer desires to live." 
 
 ' ' Have you seen any human beings corres- 
 ponding to doves?" asked the Count doubt- 
 fully. 
 
 " I have seen many, dear sir. I have seen
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 219 
 
 wood cocks who have paired with doves, and the 
 doves have been very unhappy; I have seen 
 male doves who have wedded a cuckoo, and the 
 cuckoo is the worst of all birds, for it likes the 
 pleasure of love, but not the trouble of children, 
 and therefore turns its children out of the nest; 
 but I have also seen wedded doves, sir." 
 
 " Who never pecked each other? ' 
 
 ' ' Yes, I have seen them peck when the nest 
 was narrow, and there was trouble about food, 
 but still they were good friends, and that is love. 
 There is also a sea-bird called ' svart,' sir, 
 which always flies in pairs. If you shoot one, the 
 other descends and lets itself be shot too, and 
 therefore the ' svart ' is called the stupidest of 
 all birds." 
 
 ' ' That is in the pairing time, venerable 
 preceptor." 
 
 ' ' No, young sir, they keep together the whole 
 year round and their pairing time is in spring. 
 In the winter when they have no young ones 
 with them, but are alone, they eat together, hunt 
 together, and sleep together. That is not desire, 
 but love, and if this charming feeling can exist 
 among soulless creatures, why can it not among 
 men?" 
 
 ' Yes, I have heard of its being found among 
 men, but that it departs after marriage."
 
 220 FAIR HAVEfr AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 ' ' That is mere sensual pleasure, which partly 
 goes, but then love comes." 
 
 "That is only friendship when there is any." 
 
 " Quite right, noble sir, but friendship be- 
 tween those of opposite sex is just love. But 
 there are so many things and so many sides to 
 everything. If you like, I will relate a story 
 which I have seen myself, and from which you 
 may learn something or other. It happened in 
 my youth, forty years ago, but I remember every 
 detail as though it happened yesterday. Shall 
 I relate it? " 
 
 "Certainly, preceptor. Time goes slowly 
 when one waits for a favourable wind. But 
 bring a light and wine before you begin, for I 
 think your story will not keep one awake." 
 
 ' ' Very likely not you, sir, but it has kept 
 me awake many nights," answered Franciscus, 
 and went to fetch what was required. When he 
 had returned and they sat down again on their 
 berths, he began as follows : 
 
 ' This is the story of Herr Bengt's wife. 
 She was born of noble parentage at the beginning 
 of this century. She was strictly brought up, 
 and, when her parents died, her guardian placed 
 her in a convent. There she distinguished her- 
 self by her intense religious zeal; she scourged 
 herself on Fridays and fasted on all the greater
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 221 
 
 saint's days. When she reached the age of 
 puberty, her condition became more serious, 
 and she actually attempted to starve herself to 
 death, believing it consistent with the duty of a 
 Christian to kill the flesh and to live with God in 
 Christ. Then two circumstances contributed to 
 bring about a crisis in her life. Her guardian fled 
 the country after having squandered her prop- 
 erty, and the convent authorities changed their 
 behaviour towards her, for it was a worldly 
 institution which did not at all open its gates 
 for the poor and wretched. When she saw that, 
 she began to be assailed by doubts. Doubt was 
 the disease of that time and she had a strong 
 attack of it. Her fellow-nuns believed nothing 
 and her superiors not much. 
 
 ' ' One day she was sent from the convent to 
 visit a sick person. On the way, a beautiful 
 lonely forest path, she met a Knight, young, 
 strong, and handsome. She stood and stared at 
 him as though he had been a vision; he was the 
 first man she had seen for five years, and the first 
 man she had seen since she was a woman. He 
 stopped his horse for a moment, greeted her, 
 and rode on. After that day she was tired of 
 the convent, and life enticed her. Life with its 
 beauty and attraction drew her away from Christ ; 
 she had attacks of temptation and outbreaks,
 
 222 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 
 
 and had to spend most of her time in the 
 punishment cell. One day she received a letter 
 smuggled in by the gardener. It was from the 
 Knight. He lived on the other side of the lake 
 and she could see his castle from the window of 
 the cell. The correspondence continued. Faint 
 rumours began to be circulated that a great 
 change in ecclesiastical affairs was about to take 
 place and that even the convents were about to 
 be abolished and the nuns released from their 
 vows. 
 
 ' Then hope awoke in her, but at the same 
 time that she learnt that one could be released 
 from vows, she lost faith in the sanctity of the 
 vow itself, and at one stroke all restraint gave 
 way. She believed now rather in the everlasting 
 rights of her instincts in the face of all social and 
 eccesiastical laws ! 
 
 "At last she was betrayed by a false friend, 
 and the discovery of the correspondence led to 
 her being condemned to corporal punishment. 
 But Fate had ordered otherwise, and on the day 
 that the punishment was to be carried out a 
 messenger came from the King and estates of 
 the realm with the command that the convent 
 was to be closed. The messenger was no other 
 than the Knight. He opened for her the doors 
 of the convent in order to offer her freedom and
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 223 
 
 his hand. That closed the first part of her 
 career." 
 
 "The first?' remarked the Count, as he 
 lifted the jar of Ehine wine. "Isn't the story 
 over? They were married." 
 
 "No, sir. That is how stories usually end, 
 but the real beginning is just there. And I 
 remember the day after the marriage. I had 
 married them and was her domestic chaplain. 
 The breakfast-table was laid and she came out 
 of her room, beaming as though the whole earth 
 danced on her account, and the sun was only 
 set in the sky to give them light. He was full of 
 courage and felt capable of bearing the whole 
 world on his shoulders. All his thoughts were 
 intent on making life as kind and beautiful for 
 her as he could ; and she was so happy that she 
 could neither eat nor drink; she wished only to 
 forget the existence of the sinful earth. Well! 
 she had her fancies, springing from the old time 
 when heaven was all, and earth was nothing ; he 
 was a child of the new age who knew that one 
 must live on earth in order to be able to enter 
 heaven afterwards." 
 
 ' ' And so things came to a crisis ? ' inter- 
 rupted the Count. 
 
 " They came to a crisis, as you say. I 
 remember how he ate at the breakfast-table like
 
 224 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 a hungry man, and she only sat and watched 
 him; but when she talked of birds* songs he 
 talked of roast veal. Then he noticed how she 
 had thrown her clothes the evening before on a 
 chair in the dining-room, and reminded her that 
 one must be orderly in a house." 
 
 ' Then of course there was hell in the house." 
 ' No, it was not so dangerous as that. But it 
 brought a cloud over her sun, and she felt that 
 a breach was opened between them. Still she 
 shut her eyes in order not to see it, as one does 
 when near a precipice. Then the sky clouded 
 over again. He had secret, melancholy thoughts 
 for his harvest-sheaves were on the field, and he 
 knew that his income depended on them. He 
 wished to take her out to see them, but she 
 begged him to stay at home and not to talk of 
 earth on that day." 
 
 "Earth! What an idiot! " 
 
 ' ' Yes, yes ! She was brought up like that ; 
 it was the fault of the convent which had taught 
 her to despise God's creation. So her husband 
 remained with her, and proposed that they 
 should go hunting; she accepted the proposal 
 with joy." 
 
 ' ' A proposal to kill ! That was nice ! ' : 
 
 "Yes, according to the views of the period, 
 sjr; every period has its own views. But the
 
 sky clouded over once more, for this day was 
 not a lucky one for the young Knight. The 
 King's bailiff called and desired a special inter- 
 view with him. The interview was granted and 
 the Knight was informed that he would lose his 
 rank as a noble if he did not supply the quota of 
 arms due from him as the King's vassal, which 
 he had neglected to do for h've years. The 
 Knight had no means of meeting this demand 
 but the bailiff offered to procure him an advance 
 in money in exchange for a mortgage on his 
 estate. So the matter was arranged. But then 
 the question arose how far he should take his 
 wife into his confidence with regard to this 
 matter. He summoned me in order to hear my 
 advice. I thought it was a pity that the young 
 wife should be torn so suddenly out of her dreams 
 of happiness and joy, and I was short-sighted 
 enough to advise that she should not be told 
 the real state of affairs till the first year was 
 over." 
 
 ' ' In that you were right ! Why should women 
 mix in business? It would only lead to trouble 
 and confusion and their poor husbands would 
 never have peace." 
 
 " No, sir, I was wrong, for in a true marriage 
 husband and wife should have full confidence 
 in each other and be one. And what was the 
 
 P
 
 226 FAIR HAVEN AND FOtfL 
 
 result in this case? During the year they grew 
 apart from one another. She lived in her rose- 
 garden and he in the fields; he had secrets con- 
 cealed from her and worked desperately without 
 having her as his adviser; he lived his own life 
 apart and she, hers. When they met, he had to 
 pretend to be cheerful, and so their whole life 
 became false. Finally he became tired and 
 withdrew into himself and so did she." 
 
 ' And so it was all over with their love." 
 ' No, sir; it might have been so, but true 
 love goes through worse fires than these. They 
 loved each other still and that was destined to 
 be proved by the tests which they were to pass 
 through. 
 
 ' ' Her child came, and with it commenced a 
 new stage of their life journey. She needed her 
 husband less now for her time was occupied by 
 looking after the child, and her husband felt 
 freer, for so many claims were not made on his 
 tenderness as before. She threw herself heart 
 and soul into the new occupations which 
 absorbed her; she watched through the nights 
 and toiled through the days and would never 
 give up the child to a nurse The contact with 
 reality and the little affairs of life seemed at first 
 to have an intoxicating effect upon her empty 
 soul and she began to find a certain satisfaction
 
 FAIE HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 227 
 
 in talking with her husband about his fields and 
 their cultivation. But this could not last long. 
 Education lies behind us like the seeds of weeds 
 which may remain in the ground for a year or 
 two, but which only need proper cultivation in 
 order to spring up again. One day she looked 
 in the glass and found that she had become pale, 
 thin, and ugly. She saw that the bloom of her 
 youth was past, and her charms decayed. Then 
 the woman awoke in her or rather one side of the 
 mysterious being which is called a woman : and 
 then came the longing to be beautiful, to please, 
 to feel herself ruling through her beauty. She 
 was now no longer so eagerly occupied with the 
 child as before, and she began to spend more 
 care on her own person. Her husband saw this 
 change with joy, for strange to say although he 
 had at first been glad to observe her desperate 
 zeal about the child and the house, yet when he 
 saw his heart's queen dressed negligently, and 
 marked how pale and wretched she looked, it 
 cut him to the heart. He wished to have back 
 again the charming fairy who had waited with 
 longing at the window for his return home, and 
 at whose feet he wished to worship. So strange 
 is man's heart, and so much leaven does it still 
 retain from the old times of chivalry when woman 
 was regarded as a Madonna.
 
 228 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 ' But now came something else. During the 
 iirst period of her confinement he had become a 
 little tired and careless in his habits; he came 
 and went with his hat on, ate his meals at a 
 corner of the table, and took no pains about his 
 dress. And when his wife began to return to the 
 ways of everyday life he forgot to follow her, 
 and to alter his habits. His wife, who was still 
 somewhat sickly, thought she saw in the relaxing 
 of these courtesies a want of love, and an unfor- 
 tunate chance afforded her an apparent proof 
 that he was tired of her. 
 
 ' ' It was an unlucky day ! The year was 
 approaching its end when the chief payments 
 would be made. The harvest promised to be 
 bountiful but its overplus could not cover every- 
 thing. The Knight had to find other means of 
 raising money, and he found them. He ordered 
 some fine timber-trees round the courtyard to be 
 cut down, but in so doing, they came too near 
 the house, so that his wife's favourite lime-tree 
 was also cut down. The Knight did not know 
 that she had a special liking for it, and the act 
 was quite unintentional. His wife had been ill 
 for a week or two, and when she came into the 
 dining-room she saw that the lime-tree had dis- 
 appeared; she at once believed that it had been 
 cut down to annoy her. She also noticed that
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 229 
 
 her rose-bushes had withered, for no one had 
 had time to think of such trifles amid all the 
 bustle of bringing in the harvest. This seemed 
 to her another act of unkindness and she sent 
 all the available horses and oxen to fetch 
 water. 
 
 " Now there intervened a new circumstance 
 to hasten the coming misfortune. The bailiff had 
 come to the castle to wait for the bringing in of 
 the harvest, and had an interview with the 
 Knight's wife just after she had made the two 
 above-mentioned discoveries. They found that 
 they had known each other as children, and a 
 confidential chat followed, which afforded her 
 some amusement. She liked her visitor's rustic 
 but courteous manners, and the comparison she 
 made between his politeness and her husband's 
 boorishness, was not to the advantage of the 
 latter. She forgot that her husband could be as 
 polite as the bailiff when paying a formal visit, 
 and that the bailiff could be as brusque as he in 
 everyday business. 
 
 Thus everything was in train for what should 
 happen when her husband came home. The 
 bailiff had gone and left her alone with her 
 thoughts. When her husband came in, he was 
 cheerful, being pleased to see his wife up again, 
 and because the continued dry weather was goocl
 
 230 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 for the harvest, which was all now ready cut and 
 could be brought in in a single day. But his wife, 
 depressed by her thoughts, felt annoyed by his 
 cheerfulness, and now the shots went off, one 
 after the other. She asked about her lime-tree, 
 and he said he had cut it down because he 
 required timber; she then asked why he must 
 cut down ' just ' the lime-tree which shaded her 
 window ; he answered that he had not cut down 
 just that one, but all of them together. 
 
 'Then she began about the rose-bushes. He 
 replied that he had never promised to water 
 them. She, having no answer to this, discovered 
 that he was wearing greased boots, and immedi- 
 ately remarked upon it. He acknowledged his 
 inadvertence and was about to repair it on the 
 spot by drawing them off, but she became furious 
 at such an act of discourtesy. Hard words passed 
 between them and she declared that he loved 
 her no more. Then the Knight answered some- 
 what in this way : ' I don't love you, you 
 say, because I work for you and don't sit and 
 gossip by your embroidery frame; I don't love 
 you because I am hungry through neglecting 
 food; I don't love you because I don't change 
 my boots when I come for a minute into the 
 room. I don't love you, you say ! Oh, if you 
 only knew how much I loved you ! '
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 231 
 
 ' To this his wife replied : ' before we married 
 you loved me and at the same time gossiped by 
 my embroidery frame, took off your boots when 
 you came in, and showed me politeness. What 
 has happened then, to make you change your 
 behaviour? ' 
 
 : ' Her husband answered : ' We are married 
 now.' His wife thought he meant that marriage 
 had given him a proprietary right over her, and 
 that he wished to show this by his free-and-easy 
 demeanour, but this last was simply due to his 
 unshakeable trust in her vow to love him through 
 joy and sorrow, and in her forbearance, if, in 
 order to avoid loss of time, he dropped a number 
 of little empty ceremonies. He was on the point 
 of telling her that it was in order to stave off ruin 
 that he worked in the fields, thought only of 
 crops, tramped in the mud, and brought dirt into 
 the house, but he kept silence, for he thought that 
 in her weak state, she could not bear the shock, 
 and he knew that in twenty-four hours all danger 
 would be passed and the house would be saved. 
 He asked her to forgive him, and they forgave 
 one another, and spoke gently together again. 
 But then came a shock ! The steward rushed in 
 and announced that a storm was approaching. 
 The Knight's wife was glad that the roses would 
 get rain, but he was not. It seemed to him like
 
 232 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 
 
 the finger of God, and he told his wife every- 
 thing but bade her at the same time be of good 
 courage. He then gave orders that all the oxen 
 should be yoked and the harvest brought in at 
 once. He was told that they had been sent to 
 fetch water. Who had sent them? ' I did/ 
 answered his wife. ' I wanted water for my 
 flowers, which you allowed to be dried up, while 
 I was ill.' 
 
 ' Aren't you ashamed to say you did? ' asked 
 the Knight. 
 
 : ' She answered : ' You plume yourself on hav- 
 ing deceived me for a whole year. I have no need 
 to be ashamed of telling the truth, since I have 
 committed no fault, but only met with a mis- 
 fortune.' Then he became furious, went to her 
 with upraised hand, and struck her." 
 
 "And served her devilish right!" said the 
 Count. 
 
 ' ' Fie ! Fie ! young sir ! To strike a weak 
 woman ! ' 
 
 ' Why should one not strike a woman, when 
 one strikes children?" 
 
 " Because woman is weaker, sir." 
 
 ' ' Another reason ! One cannot get at the 
 stronger, and one must not strike the weaker : 
 Whom shall one strike then ? ' ' 
 
 "One should not strike at all, my friend.
 
 FAIK HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 233 
 
 Fie ! Fie ! What sentiments you utter, and you 
 wish to be a soldier ! ' 
 
 ' ' Yes ! What happens in war ? The stronger 
 strikes and the weaker is struck. Isn't that logic?" 
 
 " It may be logic, but it is not morality. But 
 do you want to hear the continuation ? ' ' 
 
 " Wasn't it over then, with their love at any 
 rate?" 
 
 " No, sir ! not by a long way ! Love does not 
 depart so easily. Well ! she believed now just as 
 you do, that it was all over with love, and she 
 asked the bailiff, who came in just then, to make 
 an appeal for separation in her name to the 
 King." 
 
 " And she wanted to leave her child? " 
 
 "No, she thought she could take it with her. 
 Her pride was wounded to the quick, and she 
 felt crushed under the ruins of her beautiful 
 castle in the air." 
 
 "And her husband?" 
 
 1 ' He was pulverised ! His dream of wedded 
 love was over, and he was ruined besides, for 
 the rainstorm had carried away and destroyed 
 the whole of his harvest. And when he saw that 
 it was she whom he loved who was the cause of 
 his misfortune he felt resentment in his heart 
 against her, but he loved her still, when his anger 
 had been allayed,"
 
 234 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 "Still?" 
 
 ' Yes, sir, for love does not ask why. It only 
 knows that it is so. The Knight was ruined, and 
 left his house to look after itself while he rode 
 about in the woods and fields. His wife, on the 
 contrary, awoke to a life of energy and diligence 
 and took in hand the whole management of the 
 house; necessity made the little, tender being 
 who never had worked, strong; she sewed 
 clothes for herself and the children; she made 
 payments and looked after the servants, and 
 this last was not the easiest, for the latter had 
 grown accustomed to regard the little spoilt lady 
 as only a guest, but she took hold of affairs with 
 an energetic hand and kept them in order. When 
 money was insufficient she pawned her jewels, 
 and by that means paid wages and cleared off 
 debts. One day when the Knight awoke to 
 reflection and came home anxiously to look after 
 the condition of affairs which he regarded as 
 hopeless, he found everything in proper order. 
 When he made inquiries, he was told that his 
 wife had saved everything. Then remorse and 
 shame awoke in him and he went to ask her on 
 his knees to forgive him for not having under- 
 stood and valued her. She forgave him and 
 declared that she had not formerly deserved to 
 be more highly valued, since she did not then
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOTJL STRAND 235 
 
 possess the qualities which she afterwards 
 acquired. They were reconciled as friends, but 
 she declared that her love was dead, and that she 
 did not intend to be his wife for the future. 
 
 ' Their conversation was interrupted by the 
 bailiff, who during this time had lived in the 
 house and helped the wife by his advice and 
 service. Her husband felt himself put aside and 
 his place occupied by another; jealousy raged 
 in him, and he forbade his wife to receive a 
 stranger in her rooms. His wife thereupon de- 
 clared that she would visit the bailiff in his rooms 
 but her husband reminded her that he had 
 rights over her person, since she was still his 
 wife according to the law. But she had th'at day 
 received by post the decree of separation and 
 told him that she was free and could go where 
 she liked. Then when he saw that it was all 
 over, he collapsed and begged her on his knees 
 to remain. When she saw the proud Knight 
 crawling on the ground like a slave she lost the 
 last remnants of respect for him, and when she 
 remembered how once in her weakness and 
 misery, she had looked up to him as the one who 
 could carry her in his arms over thorns and 
 stones, she wished to fly from this spectacle. 
 Being no more able to find in him, what he had 
 once been to her, she simply went away."
 
 236 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 ' Well now," interrupted the Count, who 
 began to be bored, " it really was over." 
 
 ' No, no, young sir, it only looked so, but 
 was not. But here I must make a confession. 
 I saw everything with my own eyes, sir, for I was 
 her friend and honoured her in my heart. How 
 foolish I was, I will also confess. We of the 
 old school, who were brought up at the end of 
 the age of chivalry, had learnt to see in woman 
 a creature above the ordinary level of humanity ; 
 we revered the outward part, and that which 
 was beautiful and useless; in our ideas that 
 which pleased the eye took the first place. You 
 can well imagine that I, though a seeker of the 
 truth, was so misled by these old ideas, that I 
 thought she was sinking just when she showed 
 the greatest energy and courage. Yes, on the 
 very day that the decree of separation came, 
 I had a conversation with her which I can 
 remember as clearly as though I had written it 
 down. I said : ' If you knew how idolatrously 
 high you once stood in my sight. And I saw the 
 angel let her white wings fall, I saw the fairy lose 
 her golden shoe. I saw you the morning after 
 the marriage when you rode on your white horse 
 through the wood, it carried you so lightly over 
 the damp grass and lifted you so high over the 
 mud of the marsh without a spot coming on
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 237 
 
 your silver-bright clothing. For a moment I 
 thought as I stood behind a tree; " Suppose she 
 fell ! ' and my thought turned into a vision. 
 I saw you sink in the mire; the black water 
 spirited over you; your yellow hair lay like sun- 
 shine over the white blossoms of the bog of 
 myrtle; you sank and sank till I only saw your 
 little hand; then I heard a falcon scream up in 
 the air and mount up on its wings till it was lost 
 in the clouds.' But then she answered me so 
 well. ' You said once long ago that reality with 
 all its dirt and sordidness was given us by God, 
 and that we should not curse it, but take it as 
 it is. Very well ! But now you hint that I have 
 sunk because I am on the way to reconcile my- 
 self with this life ; I have changed the garment of 
 the rich for that of the poor, since I am poor; 
 I lost my youth when I obeyed the law of nature 
 and became a mother ; the beauty of my hands is 
 spoilt by sewing, my eyes are dim with care, the 
 burden of life presses me to the earth but my 
 soul mounts mounts like the falcon towards the 
 sky and freedom, while my earthly body sinks 
 in the mud amid evil-smelling weeds.' 
 
 " Then I asked if she really believed she could 
 keep the soul above while the body sank, and 
 she answered ' No ! ' This was because she, like 
 myself, had the delusion that something sank.
 
 The body, however, did not sink through work; 
 on the contrary, it was hardened and streng- 
 thened; it improved and mounted but did not 
 sink. However, we were both so foolish that we 
 both imagined it did, having been indoctrinated 
 with this view from our youth upwards. We 
 considered white hands, though they might be 
 weak and sickly as more beautiful than those 
 which were hardened and embrowned by toil. 
 So perverse were people's ideas in my youth, 
 sir, and so they are still, here and there. But 
 in my perversity I went farther and advised her 
 to commit a crime ' Loose the falcon and let it 
 mount, I said.' 
 
 "'I have already thought of that,' she 
 answered, understanding my thought, ' but the 
 chain is strong.' 
 
 " ' I have the key to it,' I replied. 
 ' She asked me to give it her, and received 
 from me a bottle of poison. 
 
 " Now I return to the story where I left it off. 
 It was where she had left her husband's room 
 to seek the bailiff in the upper story. When she 
 came there she had to wait, for the bailiff had 
 visitors. She also received a lesson, for none 
 of her married friends would greet her, because 
 she had dissolved her marriage. One of these 
 friends had been unfaithful to her husband and
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 239 
 
 had a lover but she thought herself too good to 
 take Frau Margit's hand. What is one to say to 
 that? At that time it was considered one of the 
 greatest crimes to dissolve a marriage, but now, 
 thank Heaven ! our ideas have changed. She 
 came, as I have said, to the bailiff to ask his 
 advice as she had done all the time when diffi- 
 culties arose. 
 
 "Did she love him? Probably not; but the 
 heart is never so likely to deceive itself as in such 
 cases. She imagined that she did, because she 
 thought she had lost her husband and by birth 
 and upbringing she was not adapted to stand 
 alone. 
 
 ' ' But the bailiff was another sort of man. He 
 was like one of those birds with a seraglio which 
 I spoke of, and if he had not been so cowardly, 
 he would have already enticed the Knight's wife. 
 But he did not do it, for he saw that this fruit 
 would drop when it was ripe enough. Therefore 
 he waited. But he had another characteristic; 
 he was as vain as a cock in a hen-house, and 
 thought that he was a terrible fellow whom no 
 woman could resist. So when he overheard Frau 
 Margit say that she intended visiting him in his 
 room, he believed that the time had come, and 
 made elaborate preparations to receive her. 
 She came quite unsuspiciously, for she trusted
 
 240 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 his friendship and devotion to her interests. 
 She wished to speak of the serious prospect which 
 lay before her ; he spoke of his love and she did 
 not wish to listen. She was legally free but still 
 felt herself bound. The might of memory held 
 her and perhaps the old love had a word to say 
 in the matter. The bailiff became bolder and 
 begged for her love on his knees. Then she 
 despised him. His vanity was wounded, he for- 
 got himself, threw the mask aside, and wished 
 to use force. I came accidentally there and 
 was able to give him the coup de grace by tell- 
 ing Frau Margit that he was engaged to be 
 married. There was nothing left for him but to 
 withdraw. 
 
 ' But she had already, when her last hope 
 collapsed and her last dream vanished, used the 
 key to open the gate of eternity ; I who knew that 
 the poison required an hour to produce its effect, 
 used the opportunity to speak to her, as one 
 speaks to the dying. Ah ! certainly the love of 
 mortals for this wretched life is great, and at 
 such moments the human soul is turned upside 
 down ; what lies at the bottom comes uppermost, 
 old memories revive; old beliefs, however 
 absurd and however rightly they may have been 
 rejected, arise again, and I woke up in her the 
 old ideas of duty, foolish perhaps, but necessary
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 241 
 
 now. I brought her so far that she wished to 
 live and commence again a life of renunciation 
 and reflection in the convent. But since the 
 convent no longer existed I persuaded her to be 
 willing to exchange it for the imprisonment of 
 home, where there is plenty of opportunity for 
 penance in mutual self-denial, for devotion in 
 the fulfilment of duties and in obedience. She 
 fought against her pride and regretted her 
 surrender, she raged against life, which had 
 deceived her, and against men who had lied and 
 said that life was a pleasure-garden. In this 
 matter I agreed with her, for the unhappiness in 
 most marriages arises from the fact that people 
 persuade the married pair that they will find 
 absolute happiness in marriage, whereas happi- 
 ness is not to be found in life at all. 
 
 ' She was frantic, but an accident came to my 
 aid. Her child, whose room was underneath us, 
 began to cry. She was shaken to her depths, 
 and said that she was willing to live for her 
 child's sake, in order to teach it that life is 
 not what people describe it to be. She did not 
 wish to leave it to the same fate which she had 
 escaped. She did not speak of her husband; 
 whether she thought of him or not, I cannot say. 
 I who had given her the poison, knew where 
 the antidote was; but as I still wished to keep
 
 242 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 
 
 her in fear, I gave her less hope than I myself 
 possessed. 
 
 " I went away, and when I returned, I found 
 her in her husband's arms. He had found her on 
 the stairs, where she had fallen down in a swoon. 
 All was forgiven and all was forgotten. You 
 think that strange? But have you not forgiven 
 your mother although she chastised you, and 
 does not your mother love you, although you 
 have deceived her, and caused her grief and 
 anxiety. This last agitation had convulsed her 
 soul so that the old love lay uppermost like a 
 clear pearl, which has been fished up from the 
 miry bottom of the sea where it lay hidden in a 
 dirty mollusc. But she still struggled with her 
 pride and said she would not love him, although 
 she did love him. I never forget his answer, 
 which contains the whole riddle, ' You did not 
 wish to love me, Margit/ he said, ' for your pride 
 forbade it, but you love me still. You love me, 
 although I raised my hand against you, and 
 although I was shamefully cowardly when the 
 trouble came. I wished to hate you when you 
 left me ; I wished to kill you, because you were 
 willing to sacrifice your child, and still I love you. 
 Do you not now believe in the power of love over 
 our evil wills ? ' 
 
 ' ' So he said ; and I say now like the fabulist :
 
 FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND 243 
 
 this fable teaches that love is a great power which 
 passes all understanding and against which our 
 wills can do nothing. Love bears all things, 
 gives up all things, and of faith, hope, and love, 
 sir, love is the greatest." 
 
 ' Well, how did they go on afterwards ? ' ' 
 asked the Count. 
 
 ' I was no longer with them." 
 'They probably continued to quarrel." 
 ' * I know that they have disagreements some- 
 times, for these must happen when there are 
 different opinions, but I know also that neither 
 wishes to domineer over the other. They go 
 
 ./ o 
 
 their way, making less demands on life than 
 before and therefore they are as happy as one 
 can be when one takes life as it is. That was 
 what the old period with its claim of being able 
 to make a heaven on earth could not do, but what 
 the new period has learnt. 
 
 THE END 
 
 THE NORTHUMBERLAND FRESS, THORNTON STRICT, NBWCASTI.K-UPON-TVNB
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL JJBRARY F 
 
 A 000 048 222 4