Hjalmar H. Boyesen

“ Her maestro had told her repeatedly that she had naturally a better voice than Nilsson, and that, if she could dry up for ever her fountain of tears, she might become a great artiste. For Ilka had the deplorable habit of crying on very slight provocation. The maestro, with his wild hair, his long, polished nails, and his frantic gesticulations, frightened and distressed her; she thought and spoke of him as a kind of curious animal, and nothing could persuade her that he and she belonged to the same species. Nor did Mr. Hahn and Fritz seem to her more than half human. ”

“ Through the depth of the valley shot a river with brawling rapids and eddies and yellow foam. Out toward the west there was a glimpse of the fjord and a vista of colossal mountain-peaks, which in fine weather swam in a blue ethereal mist, and with delicate susceptibility reflected every mood of the sky.
Ewald Nordahl's heart beat uneasily as he rode up from the steamboat-landing to the River Inn. He matured rapidly his plans, and hearing that there was good salmon-fishing in the river, determined to hire it, whatever the price might be, for the season. ”

“ The darkness, the damp cold, and the unopened window-shutters impressed him ominously. He felt as if some calamity had happened or were about to happen. Sigurd lighted a piece of driftwood and stuck it into a crevice in the wall. The storm seemed to have ceased: a strange, tomb-like silence prevailed without and within. On the low hearth lay a small snowdrift which sparkled with a starlike glitter in the light.
"Bring the snow-shovels, Thoralf," said Sigurd. "Be quick; lose no time."
"They are in the shed outside," answered Thoralf. ”

“ To Cranbrook the daily companionship with these kind-hearted, primitive people had been a most refreshing experience. As he wrote to a friend at home, he had shaken off the unwholesome dust which had accumulated upon his soul, and had for the first time in his life breathed the undiluted air of healthful human intercourse. Annunciata was to him a living poem, a simple and stately epic, whose continuation from day to day filled his life with sonorous echoes. She was a modern Nausicaa, with the same child-like grandeur and unconscious dignity as her Homeric prototype. ”

“ No, no, I loved Mabel too well as she seemed, to wish to know whether she was a delusion or a reality. What good would it do me if I found out that she too was a parrot, or a goose, or any other kind of bird or beast? The fairest hope would go out of my life, and I should have little or nothing left worth living for. I must confess that my curiosity often tormented me beyond endurance, but, as I said, I could never muster courage enough either to conquer it or to yield to it. ”

“ There lay Dannevig—but I would rather not describe him. It was hard to believe it, but this heavy-lidded, coarse-skinned, red-veined countenance bore a cruel, caricatured resemblance to the clean-cut, exquisitely modelled face of the man I had once called my friend. A death-like stupor rested upon his features; his eyes were closed, but his mouth half open.
"By Jove!" exclaimed the physician, in a burst of professional enthusiasm, "what a splendid animal he must have been! Hardly saw a better made man in all my life." ”

“ Having fastened his rod between the stones, he started forward, with the spear, leaping from rock to rock, and in ten or fifteen minutes reached the end of the jetty. The girl was then seated with averted face in an attitude of resignation, watching the motions of the gulls that circled scream ing over her head. Two fishing-lines were hanging over the gunwale; but she did not heed them. "Do you need help?" shouted Brooks.
She started at the sound of his voice as if she had been shot; glanced shyly toward him, and then looked again at the horizon. ”

“ It was well the rapids were between them, or he would have betrayed himself.
"My father, my father!" he murmured, while unseen tears suffused his eyes. It seemed good to pronounce the name. An overwhelming tenderness for the old man filled his soul. The weight of years and sorrow had bent, but not broken, him. Like Jacob, of old, he had wrestled with the Lord; and though ravaged by the conflict, he stood yet upon his legs. The son thought, with humility, of his own vain and flimsy woes, which were but boyish resentment and wounded pride; and his cherished plans of revenge vanished like smoke. ”

“ There was a splendid and venerable beech wood, intersprinkled with sumach and hickory, which intercepted the view between the Tarbox farm and that of the deacon. It was full of mysterious hollows and primeval stillness. Even the blue-jays—shrill pirates as they are—behaved decorously in the gloom which hovered among the dense leaves, and the squirrels robbed birds' nests with a sense of secrecy and pricks of conscience. It was hither the new-fangled school-master made his way, ruminating over the fragments of Kate's letter. ”

“ Thoralf instantly took in the situation. By the swinging motion, occasioned both by the wind and his fight with the gull, the rope had become frayed against the sharp edge of the cliff, and his chances of life, he coolly concluded, were now not worth a sixpence. Curiously enough, his agitation suddenly left him, and a great calm came over him. He seemed to stand face to face with eternity; and as nothing else that he could do was of any avail, he could at least steel his heart to meet death like a man and an Icelander. ”

“ All eyes are turned toward the glacier. The huge white ridge, gleaming here and there through a cloud of smoke, is pushing down over the mountain-side, a black bulwark of earth rising totteringly before it, and a chaos of bowlders and blocks of ice following, with dull crunching and grinding noises, in its train. The barns and the store-house of the Ormgrass farm are seen slowly climbing the moving earth-wall, then follows the mansion—rising—rising—and with a tremendous, deafening crash the whole huge avalanche sweeps downward into the fjord. ”

“ It is not to be wondered at that Ilka did not thrive in Berlin as well as her mother did; just as the tender-petaled alpine rose can only breathe the cool breezes of its native mountains, and withers and droops if transplanted to a garden.
Mother Uberta was by no means blind to the fact that both Fritz and his father had designs on her daughter, and having convinced herself that their prosperity rested on a solid basis, she was not disinclined to favor their suits. ”

“ Brooks, you are one of those who disapprove of intellect in women," Miss Herkomer rejoined, with a primness which was in itself a rebuke to his levity.
"Not at all. I only hold that there are some things which are more valuable than intellect."
"More valuable than intellect! What are they, pray?"
"Health, first of all; innocence and simplicity of soul, sweet and unspoiled emotions."
He looked directly at the unconscious girl at the rudder, as if he read out of her face all the things which he found most admirable. ”

“ He gazed at Annunciata for a moment in helpless bewilderment, then coughed in his red bandanna handkerchief, took a deliberate pinch of snuff and began:
"The Holy Virgin is gracious, child, and she hates no one. But little girls should not trouble their heads with things that do not concern them."
"But this does concern me, padre," retorted the girl eagerly. "I went this morning with Signore Giovanni, the stranger who is lodging with us,—for he is a very good and kind man, padre; I went with him to the Aracoeli to see the blessed Bambino and the shepherds and the Holy Virgin. ”

“ And there was no one who loved Germany more ardently than he, even though he did say severe things about it."
"That is a thing about which you can have no opinion, Hildegard," said Pfeifer, with paternal decision; and he blew a dense cloud of smoke toward the ceiling.
Miss Hildegard looked rebellious for an instant, but accepted the verdict of superior wisdom with submissive silence. The old man gave me a little confidential wink as if to say:
"There is a model girl for you. She knows that women should not speak in meeting." ”

“ And in spite of all this, poor Storm soon found that she had wound herself so closely about his heart, that the process of unwinding, as he expressed it, would require greater strength and a sterner philosophy than he believed himself to possess. He had always been shy of women, not because he distrusted them, but because he was painfully conscious of being, in point of physical finish, a second-rate article, a bungling piece of work, and naturally felt his disadvantages more keenly in the presence of those upon whom Nature had expended all her best art. ”

“ I wondered whether I ever should be a professor, like her father, and ended with concluding that the next best thing to being one's self a professor would be to be a professor's son-in-law. But, somehow, I wasn't at all sure that Mabel cared anything about me.
"Things are not what they seem," I murmured to myself, "and the real Mabel may be a very different creature from the Mabel whom I know." ”

“ Above them grew two huge walnut-trees, whose big leaves cut off the sun from the thin, pale-green grass, which grew in scant scattered tufts out of the black mould. There was a humid, earthy smell in the arbor, and little chattering noises were heard overhead, where a couple of squirrels were chasing each other, and two solitary-looking brown birds, dismally hopping from bough to bough.
"Miss Olga," said Ewald, leaning forward and scratching the gravel with the handle of his riding-whip, "what would you say to me it you found that I had been deceiving you?" ”

“ It was so coolly and admirably done that Kate could not help complimenting him. Alfred knew she had always had a taste for the heroic. And Mr. Tarbox was the only man she had known who could do a brave thing silently, and with no more ado than if he were pulling off his boots. Swift and decisive action was the one thing which she positively adored, etc., etc. At this point Tallcott tore the letter into a hundred bits, and sent the fragments fluttering, like a flock of butterflies, out over the deacon's garden. ”

“ It did not dispel the dusk, but gave it just the tenderest suffusion of sunshine.
"Stop," whispered Cranbrook. "I want you to take in the total impression of this scene before you examine the details. Only listen to this primeval stillness; feel, if you can, the stately monotony of this corridor, the divine repose and dignity of these marble forms, the chill immobility of this light. It seems to me that, if a full, majestic organ-tone could be architecturally expressed, it must of necessity assume a shape resembling the broad, cold masses of this aisle. ”

“ Thoralf dozed off occasionally, and tried gently to extricate himself from his frightened brother's embrace; but Jens lay with wide-open eyes, staring into the dark, and now and then sliding the trapdoor aside and peeping out, until a blinding shower of ashes would again compel him to slip his head under the sheepskin coverlet. When at last he summoned courage to peep out, he could not help shuddering. It was terribly cheerless and desolate. And all the time, his father's words kept ringing ironically in his ears: "Iceland is the most beautiful land the sun doth shine upon." ”

“ As he reached the second landing, panting and breathless, he found himself in violent contact with another person, who, like himself, seemed to be fumbling for the bell-handle.
"Beg your pardon, sir," said a voice in the dark.
"What, you sneaking young villain!" cried Hahn in great wrath (for the voice was only too familiar to him) ; "I might have known you were up to some devilish trick, or you wouldn't——"
Here the senior Hahn choked, and was seized with a violent coughing fit.
"You miserable old sinner!" hissed Fritz; "the devil has already got his finger on your throat." ”

“ She was endeavoring to persuade herself that her sham passion was real; while the poor little girl in Captain Jewell's garret stood with fear and trembling, staring at the wall, endeavoring to convince herself that her real passion was a delusion. A man was such a remote and formidable kind of creature to her, that it had never seriously entered into her calculations that he was indispensable to any sort of love romance ending in bliss or misery. ”

“ When God abstracted that seventh or ninth rib from Adam, and fashioned a woman of it, the result was, entre nous, nothing to boast of. I have ever ceased to regret that Adam did not wake up in time to thwart that hazardous experiment. It may have been necessary to introduce some tragic element into our lives, and if that was the intention, I admit that the means were ingenious. To my mind the only hope of salvation for the human race lies in its gradual emancipation from that baleful passion which draws men and women so irresistibly to each other. ”

“ He saw Annunciata stooping down over a form that lay outstretched on the ground, but the sight of her was repulsive to him and he turned away.
"Help me, Signore Giovanni," she begged in a hoarse whisper. "He may be dead and there is no one to help him."
Half mechanically he stooped down—gracious heavens! It was Vincent! In an instant all his anger and misery were forgotten.
"Hurry, Annunciata," he cried; "run for a doctor. Great God! what have you done?" ”

“ You wish to convince yourself of your constancy by provoking an attack from me. When love has reached that stage, Miss Hildegard, then the patient is no longer absolutely incurable. Now, to convince you that I am right, will you have the kindness to look me straight in the eyes and tell me that there is no shadow of doubt in your heart as to Mr. Dannevig's truthfulness ”

“ Olga had listened with a wild, pained intentness to every word they had spoken; and from somewhere in her soul a sudden conviction had sprung up that the man she loved was Ewald, her uncle's son. There was a frankness and open honesty in his face which could never deceive. The heroic element in her nature rose turbulently and swept away all petty calculation. All aglow with noble resolution, she stepped forward, put both her hands upon the young man's shoulders, and into his eyes, said:
"Are you, indeed, Ewald Nordahl?" ”

“ As far as he could see, the world was white with snow, which the storm whirled madly around, and swept now earthward, now heavenward. Great funnel-shaped columns of snow danced up the hillsides and vanished against the black horizon. The prospect before the boy was by no means inviting, but he had been accustomed to battle with dangers since his earliest childhood, and he was not easily dismayed. With much deliberation, he climbed over the edge of the chimney, and rolled down the slope of the roof in the direction of the shed. ”

“ Fern suspended his packing, and resumed his objectionable attitude toward the mysteries of creation.
About a week after this occurrence, Maurice was walking along the beach, watching some peasant lads who were spearing trout in a brook near by. The sun had just dipped below the western mountain peaks, and a cool, bluish twilight, which seemed the essence of atmospheric purity, purged of all accessory effects, filled the broad, placid valley, and made it a luxury to breathe. ”

“ I am one of those crude colorless, superfluous products which Nature throws off with listless ease in her leisure moments when her thoughts are wandering and her strength has been exhausted by some great and noble effort."
Mr. Storm uttered these extraordinary sentiments, not with a careless toss of the head, and loud demonstrative ardor, but with a grave, measured intonation, as if he were reciting from some tedious moral book recommended by ministers of the gospel and fathers of families. ”

“ Ilka could never rid herself of the impression that Fritz was to be taken very seriously,—that, in fact, there was something almost awful about him. She could laugh at old Hahn's jokes, and if he attempted to take liberties she could push him away, or even give him a slap on his broad back. But Fritz's talk frightened her by its very unintelligibility; his mirth seemed terrible; it was like hearing a man laugh in his sleep ”

“ Now, as you will frequently in a lumber-room, amid a deal of absolute dross, stumble upon an object of rare and curious value, so also in America you may, among heaps of human trumpery, be startled by the sparkle of a genuine human jewel. Our friend here, I need not add, is such a jewel, though cut according to the fashion of the last century, when men went wild over liberty and other illusory ideals and when, after having exhausted all the tamer kinds of dissipation, they amused themselves by cutting each other's heads off. ”

“ I stammered. "German whims?—I mean things as they are—and—and not as they seem—das Ding an sich—beg your pardon—I am not sure, I—I comprehended your meaning—beg your pardon?"
"My dear boy," croaked the professor, opening his beak in great bewilderment, and showing a little thick red tongue, which curved upward like that of a parrot, "you are certainly not well. Mabel! Mabel! Come down! James is ill! Yes, you certainly look wretchedly. ”

“ Therefore I asked the padre; but I do not believe any more that the padre is always right. God is better and wiser than he, and God will find a way where a priest would find none."
There was something inexpressibly touching in the way she uttered these simple words. Cranbrook, although he was, for reasons of his own, disappointed at her perfect composure, felt the tears mounting to his eyes, and his voice shook as he answered:
"I am not afraid of my lot in the next world, Annunciata; and although it is kind of you to be troubled about it, I fear you can do nothing to improve it. ”

“ Witty tar looks around with an air of magnanimous deprecation.
A strange feeling of exultation had taken possession of Maurice. The light and the air suddenly seemed glorious to him. He knew the world misjudged his action; but he felt no need of its vindication. He was rather inclined to chuckle over its mistake, as if it and not he were the sufferer. He walked with rapid steps toward the prow of the ship, where. Tharald and Elsie were standing. There was a look of invincibility in his eye which made the old man quail before him. ”

“ He said nothing to him about the dispute which had existed for years between himself and Captain Nordahl of Fossevang, who claimed right of ownership in the rapids. The pugnacious captain, he reckoned, knew well enough that every American was a peripatetic arsenal, and he would think twice before molesting him. People stood staring in dazed envy and amazement as Syvert carried off his prize in a rickety red-and-green painted cart which threatened every moment to throw its occupants forward on the loins of the pony. ”

“ Most people would have pronounced her beautiful, but her beauty was of that rudimentary, unindividualized kind which is found so frequently among the peasantry of all nations. To Fritz Hahn, however who was not a philosophical observer, she seemed the most transcendent phenomenon his eyes had ever beheld.
"To make a long story short, madam," began Mr. Hahn after a pause, during which Mother Uberta had been bristling silently while firing defiant glances at the two strangers, "I am the proprietor of a great establishment in Berlin—the 'Haute Noblesse'—you may have heard of it." ”

“ Anastasia was a trifle taken aback. She was not prepared for such sincerity. The thought occurred to her that Charity was crowing over her; or that perhaps she was deeper than anybody suspected.
"Now, dear, let us be perfectly frank with each other," she said; "there is nothing that I admire more than perfect sincerity. If there is one virtue I possess, it is that. You know, of course, it is of no consequence to me, one way or another, whether you have talked with Mr. Brooks." ”