Part 7

In all this old-fashioned simplicity lay the essential part of the cure for a tired brain, which would seek rest in the past. The worn movement of the watch would lay unwound awhile and let the spring be relieved of tension to regain its spent powers. The association with the lower classes which did not entice to battle for the morsel of power, but themselves involuntarily every day and hour reminded those of the upper class of their dearly earned position, would diminish the stimulus and quiet those desirous of power by the thought that there already existed passed by periods.

The commissioner had already prepared the minds of the visitors to see and know all this, and neither of the ladies tired of expressing their satisfaction with the new quarters and were so occupied by investigating the location that they did not observe that their guide had retreated to leave them undisturbed.

* * * * *

The commissioner sat at his window on this Sunday afternoon and watched the two ladies put things in order down in their cottage. When he followed with his eyes their soft, but irregular movements, it was to him as though he heard music. The same modulations that a series of harmonizing tones develop on the ear drum and communicate to the nerve system, the same mild vibrations were now produced through the eye, and rang through the white strings which stretched from the cranium shell out over the sounding board of the chest and transmitted the vibrations through the foundation of his soul. A feeling of general pleasure streamed through his being, when he saw these women's hands moving in waving lines, as they picked trifles from their trunks and laid them on the table and chairs, the rising and sinking of the hips and shoulders imperceptible to the untrained eye, but still so elastic. And when the young woman passed through the room, there arose no straight line, no corners or edges when she turned, no angles when she bent over.

He was perfectly captivated in regarding this, so that for a moment he did not notice the noise in the garret and the creaking of the stairs and the raising of latches.

He was deeply occupied regarding the young lady whose exterior seemed to him perfectly beautiful except in one point, which deficiency he would try and accustom his eyes not to see. Her chin was a few lines too big and indicated a lower jaw unnecessarily developed in one who had ceased to catch, hold and tear uncooked meat, and when he saw it in profile he could picture the coming witch physiognomy, when the time came that the old woman's teeth loosened, the lips sunk and formed an obtuse angle and the nose dropped down over the prominent chin. But he must overcome this reminder of a beast of prey, and he pursued her face with his glance and reshaped it in his fancy, forced his eyes when they were fixed upon her face to see it in its entirety.

Now he heard footsteps and shouts down on the hill, and in a wild rage Oman's wife appeared with a swarm of women, who were carrying in triumph the rescued net down to the beach.

He instantly felt his authority infringed on, and taking his hat went down to the surveyor to demand his help as he was in the Crown's service and in duty bound to assist him.

In the room sat the custom house man at the coffee table, and as usual, when Vestman was out fishing, he had his arm around the waist of his sister-in-law. At the entrance of the commissioner he dropped his hold and under influence of the fear of being discovered he showed a greater officiousness than he otherwise would have done. He put on his uniform cap and went out and in a hasty desire to be a just man he stormed against the women and caught hold of the net.

"Damned old women, don't you know it is penitentiary to break the Crown's lock and seal!"

The women answered in a chorus of imputations, which alluded to both the commissioner and surveyor, the principal ones being that they did not care and that the devil might take the Crown's lock and seal, and that both gentlemen were of such characters that they could be put in penitentiary at any time.

Whereupon the surveyor became enraged and cried to a subordinate to bring the sheriff.

At the word sheriff the people gathered, crawled out of every hole and corner like ants, when one scratches in an ant-hill.

The people seemed ready at once to take part with the women, threatening words were uttered. The commissioner found it time for him to interfere to avoid coming under a subordinate's protection. Therefore he went up to the crowd and asked what they wanted.

But he received no answer, and turning to the women he spoke to them in a polite but stern manner, saying:

"As I before informed you, the Reichstag or your own elected representatives decided for the sake of your children and descendants that the fishing must be protected through prohibiting the use of such implements as spoil it without bringing you any advantage, and when you have had three years to wear out your old nets, but are still making new ones against the law, I have in the name of the Crown been forced to confiscate the unlawful implements. Nevertheless and in spite of the statute law you have broken the Crown's lock and seal, which can be punished with penitentiary. Still I will use clemency instead of justice if you comply and obey, therefore I ask you for the last time, if you will willingly give back the nets."

To this the women answered with new shriek and a new shower of epithets.

"Well," finished the commissioner, "as I am not a policeman, and you are the multitude, I beg the custom house surveyor to send for the sheriff and his assistants and at the same time I will solicit an order from the provincial governor to arrest Oman's wife."

As he spoke the last word, he felt two soft, warm hands grasp his right hand, and two big childish eyes looked into his, while a falling voice like that of a mother who begged for the life of her child, said:

"In the name of Heaven have compassion on a poor unhappy woman and don't do her any ill;" it was the supplication of the young girl who had at the beginning of the scene come out of the cottage.

The commissioner would free himself and turned away from the big eyes, whose glance he could not endure, but he felt his hand clasped harder and finally pressed against a soft bosom, heard words in melting tones, and, completely vanquished, he whispered to the beauty, "Let me go and I will drop the whole affair."

The girl loosened her hold, and the commissioner who made his plan in half a minute caught the surveyor by his arm and led him up to the custom house cottage, just as though he would give him some orders. When they reached the door, the commissioner said shortly and decisively as though he had come to a new conclusion.

"I shall communicate with the provincial governor myself in writing. However, I thank you for your assistance."

Thereupon he went up to his room.

When he was alone and had collected his thoughts, he was obliged to acknowledge that his last act had been dictated by lower motives, as his sexual impulses had prevailed to such a high degree that he had been fooled into an act contrary to the law, for one could not speak of pity, for people who were comparatively well off, as they were owners of houses, fishing grounds, boats and implements valued at many hundreds of dollars, also owners of seal rookeries and bird islets, and, besides, paid taxes on capital and a few small places that they rented out. The false idea that a woman had vanquished him, however, did not hold a place in his thoughts, for he knew very well, conscious as he was in all points that he had fallen by his own propensity or interest to gain something from this woman. But before the throng of people his authority was ended, his reputation shaken and hereafter there would not be an old woman or a boy but felt themselves above him. This, to be sure, might be immaterial for it made no difference to him whether he had power or not over these poor wretches. What seemed worse to him was that this woman whom he now felt he must be bound to in order to be happy, should from the first moment inure herself in the belief that she had gained a conquest of him and thus the equilibrium in a future union would be disturbed.

He had had many fancies for and engagements with women before, but his distinct consciousness of man's superiority over the intermediate form between man and child, which is called woman, had made it impossible for him to conceal it long, and therefore his engagements had had but short duration. He would be loved by a woman, who should look up to him as the stronger, he would be the adored, not the adorer, he would be the main trunk on which the frail shoot should be grafted, but he was born at a period which was full of spiritual pestilence, when womankind was devastated by an epidemic mania for greatness, produced by degenerated, sickly men, and by political pygmies, who were in need of the masses to vote. Therefore he had been obliged to live alone. Well he knew that in love, man must give, must let himself be fooled and that the only way to approach a woman was on all fours. And he had crawled at intervals, and as long as he crawled everything had gone well, but when he had finally straightened up, that was the end of it, always with a multitude of reproaches that he had been false, that he had dissembled submission, that he had never loved, and so on.

Moreover, as a possessor of the highest intellectual enjoyments, and feeling himself an exceptional being, he had not harbored a lively desire after the lower affections, never desired to be the supporter of a parasite, never longed to feed competitors, and his stronger self had rebelled against being the instrument of propagation for a woman's lineage, the rôle he had seen most men of his age play.

But now he stood in just such a dilemma again, to assimilate a woman by allowing himself to be assimilated. To dissemble or let his exterior express what he did not feel, he could not, but he had a great ability for adapting himself to his associations, and comprehending other people's way of thinking and suffering, for he had never found in the lives of others anything but past stages that he himself had lived through, and consequently he had only to draw from memory or experience, letting go his hold, and diminishing the tension onward. He had always found pleasure in woman's company as a rest and diversion on exactly the same ground and from the same reason that keeping company with children makes one grow younger and is a strengthening amusement, when it is not continued too long or becomes an effort.

Now he had felt the desire growing in him to own this woman, but notwithstanding he was an investigator and knew that man was a mammal, it was perfectly clear to him that human love had developed as everything else, and has taken up the elements of a higher spiritual quality without leaving the sensual foundation. He knew precisely how much of unsound heavenliness sneaked in with the reaction of Christianity against the purely brutish, should be eliminated, and he did not believe in a primness which conceded matters that could not be shown, just as little as he admitted that the only purpose of the conjugal state was the bedfellowship. He wished for an intimate, complete union as to body and soul, where he as the stronger acid would neutralize the passive base, but not as in chemistry form a new neutral body, but, on the contrary, would leave a surplus of free acid, which would always give the union its character and lie in readiness to neutralize any attempt of the combination to liberate itself, for human love was not a chemical union, but a physical and organic, which resembled the former in certain respects without being identical with the same. He did not expect any augmentation of his own self, no addition to his strength, only an increase of his vitality, and instead of searching for a support he offered himself as a support to learn his strength and feel the enjoyment of measuring out his power, strewing with open hands his soul without being weakened thereby or made destitute.

During these thoughts he glanced out of the window and saw at once what he sought, for the young girl was standing on the door stoop receiving hand shakings from women and men, patting the children on their heads and seemed overcome by feelings, which so much public sympathy had aroused.

"What a peculiar sympathy for criminals," thought the commissioner; "what a love for the mentally poor! And how well they understood each other's propensities, which they boasted of as feelings and which they believed to be something more than clear, mature thoughts."

The whole scene was such a tangle of absurdities, that it could not be cleared, reflecting the chaotic in the first weak attempt at reasoning, by these brains and spinal cords.

There stood she who had fooled him into violating the law, and received worship like an angel. Even now if his violation of the law was from their point of view a fine noble action, then he who gave pardon instead of justice ought to have the thanks. The opinion of the horde was that he should not, for they well knew that the motive for his action was not kindness towards them, but perhaps tender feelings for a young girl, gallantry, or the hope of winning her. Yes, but the motive for her appearance might then be to gain the good will of the crowd, to become beloved and popular, and receive hand shakes; the horde here played the same role as the society of the ballroom, the promenaders on the street or in the square. And she had fooled him through personal contact, innocently, perhaps, possibly with calculations, probably half of each, to commit a weak action, for which she was worshiped.

But now he must win her, therefore he pocketed all of his reflections; he saw in an instant that through this medium he could pass his ideas and schemes down to the horde, that through this conductor he could move the masses and force upon them his benefactions, make them his vassals, and that he could afterwards sit and smile like a God at their foolishness, when they believed that they themselves had created their happiness, but were only pregnant with his thoughts, his schemes, were eating the dregs from his great brewage, the strong malt drink which would never reach their lips. For what did he care if these deserted skerries supported a half starving, superfluous population or not. What compassion could he feel for his natural enemies who represented the inert mass, that had lain smothering his life, impeding his growth, who were themselves lacking in every trace of pity for each other, and who with the fury of wild beasts persecuted their benefactors whose only revenge was new benedictions.

It would be his great and strong enjoyment to sit unobserved, regarded as an idiot, and guide these peoples' fates, while they believed that they had subdued him, cut off his connections, tied his hands. He would strike them with blindness, pervert the vision of the fools, that they should believe themselves to be his superiors and he their servant.

While these thoughts gathered and grew into a strong decision, there was a knock at the door, and at the Commissioner's "come in," the surveyor appeared to deliver an invitation to tea from the ladies.

The commissioner accepted it, and sent his thanks.

After he had arranged his toilet and thought over what to say and what not to say, he went down.

On the porch he was met by Miss Mary, who with an excessive warmth took his hands and pressed them, saying with emotion: "Thanks for what you did for the poor woman! It was noble, it was grand!"

"No, madam, it was neither," replied the commissioner hastily; "for on my side it was a bad action which I regret and it was dictated only from politeness to you."

"You malign yourself from pure politeness, and I should appreciate much more a little sincerity," replied the lady, and at the same moment the mother appeared.

"Oh! You are a good child," interrupted the mother in a tone of the most immovable conviction, and bade the commissioner step into the best room where tea was ready to serve.

To avoid engaging in an endless conversation he went in. He saw at a glance how the plain furniture of the fisherman's cottage had been mixed with remnants of worn city luxury. On the bureau had been placed alabaster vases yellowish from age, photographs in the windows between the flowers; on one side of the fireplace stood an arm chair with figured cretonne and brass tacks, a few books on a center table round a parlor lamp.

It was neatly arranged, but with a careful mathematical exactness, everything symmetrical but still a little awry and askance where it was intended to be straight. The tea set of old Saxony china with gold edges and cherry red monograms was cracked here and there and the teapot cover had been mended with clasps. After he had studied the portrait of the deceased father of the family without daring to ask what position he had held, he saw that he had been a government official, and he understood that here was _pauvres honteux_. In further looking around the room, he noticed a knapsack left under a table and bearing a tag which indicated that the old lady was the widow of a councilor of the exchequer.

At first the conversation touched the objects that presented themselves to the eyes, and then passed on to the event of the day, coming finally to the people. The commissioner saw at once that the ladies were interested in the affairs of other people and lived in a morbid uneasiness for the welfare of the lower classes. As he had observed that his sincerity had offended and the purpose of his visit was not to hurt their feelings by giving them his ideas, he laid to and let himself drift. Sometimes his resentment was aroused and he would venture a little remark or information, but he felt at once as though soft hands were placed on his mouth, and round arms wound about his neck, so that the words were smothered. Besides, the views here were so rooted, everything so fixed, and all questions settled, that they only smiled in a friendly way, with mild forbearings, when they read a doubt in him regarding their axioms. Then the conversation turned to the moral and spiritual condition of the population, and here the commissioner perfectly agreed with them. He delineated with fervor the rudeness of the forenoon with its drunkenness and fray, pitying the want of enlightenment, and finally narrating scenes which betrayed complete paganism. He spoke of how the fishermen cast offerings on stones, loaded their guns with lead from church windows, how they talked about Thor's bucks when it thundered, and of Oden's wild hunt when the gray geese came in the spring, and how those on the inner islands let the magpies destroy the chickens for the people did not dare to tear down the nests from fear of unknown avengers.

"Yes," completed the old lady, "it isn't their fault, and if they were not so far from the church, it would be entirely different."

Thither the commissioner's thoughts had not gone, but in an instant he saw what a great power he would get as an ally, and developing the seed of thought he had got in the morning from observing the divine service on board the navy steamer, he burst out with real rapture:

"Well, but one can build a meeting house at small cost. Just think of it, if I should address a letter to the Home Mission Institute."

The ladies embraced the subject with the greatest ardor and promised themselves to write to that institution and some societies and projected a fair, but recollected that here was no dancing public.

The commissioner removed all difficulties by offering to advance the money and provide the building, which could be bought ready made at the factory, if the ladies would only find a preacher. "Yet," added he, "one ought to select for this place now at the beginning, one of the stern kind, who can lay hold of the people and produce a revival movement of the most earnest nature, for no half measures will do here."

The ladies made mild objections and recommended charitable means, but the commissioner showed, how fear was the elementary foundation on which to build a first education; afterwards one could come with love.

A great common interest had welded these souls together, while they overheated themselves at the great fire of love, and worked themselves up to an overflowing omni-benevolence towards every living thing, pressed each other's hands and separated with blessings and congratulations that fate had brought together three good people, who would work unanimously for the good of humanity.

When the commissioner came out, he shook himself, as though to clear off some dust, and felt as when he had visited a flour mill, and taken delight in seeing all objects coated with the soft, white tone of flour, which harmonized Iron, wood, linen and glass in one accord, and the same feeling of subdued pleasure as in touching locks, banisters and sacks powdered with a soft dust of flour, but had at the same time found it hard to breathe, obliged to cough and to take out a handkerchief.