The Power of a Lie

THE day before the inquiry, Norby was in his office all day, arranging his papers, making notes, and preparing his answers to the questions he would probably be asked the next d...

IT sometimes happens that in the even current of our lives we suddenly meet with an obstacle that compels us to pause and consider. To Henry Wangen his failure was such an obsta...

ON the morning after the inquiry, Fru Wangen rose at six, as she was now without a servant, and had to do the washing that day. She had scarcely dressed herself, however, before...

DAY after day passed, and Norby had not yet recalled his declaration. A notice of the forgery had already appeared in the newspaper, and the more the story spread and grew, the...

THE inquiry was now approaching, and the nearer it came, the more uneasy did Norby become. He had found no way out of his difficulty yet, and he began to fear that he would not...

MARIT NORBY was proud--with the peasant women, because she looked down upon them, and with the wives of the local authorities, because she was afraid they might look down upon her.

THE parsonage was not far from Norby Farm. The day before the inquiry Pastor Borring began to wonder whether he could not bring about some reasonable agreement in this wicked an...

THE day came at length on which Fru Wangen's father and brother were to leave their farm. She had determined to get up very early in order to go and help them with anything that...

WHEN Norby entered the hall, the first thing he noticed was that Herlufsen was not among the guests; but all the other magnates were there, and there was a general greeting when...

WHEN Norby left Einar, he did not know where he went. He met some acquaintances, and had to stop and shake hands with them and chat, although he felt inclined to throw himself u...

It was a grey winter's day, and the snow was falling fast. As they turned out of the yard, the old man's thought was: "I wonder how things will be when we drive in here again."

ONE Saturday afternoon, Thora of Lidarende went out towards the Sound. It was in hay-making time, and the mowers were on the hills, making the hay into cocks for the evening. Th...

AS Knut plodded homewards, he felt like a man whose hat has been blown off his head, and who cannot find out which way it has gone. He could not conceive how this rumour about W...

EINAR NORBY still kept his bed. He sat up among his pillows in the middle of the day, and each day a little longer than on the preceding one. As the days passed, he saw the last...

THE spring was early this year, and when Pastor Borring went up the avenue to Norby Farm at the beginning of May, the trees were in leaf, and a strong scent of leaves and grass...

THE night was falling as Knut Norby drove homewards in his sledge from a meeting of the school committee. The ice on Lake Mjösen had not been safe for some little time, and he h...

FRU WANGEN had been impatient for the demonstration to take place. The means that she had despised in her husband, she herself now felt a sudden desire to resort to, like a pers...

IN a room in a Christiania boarding-house a young man was sitting with his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. In front of him lay a large open book, with certain pas...

WHEN at length the day for the dinner could be fixed, it became a busy time for Fru Thora. She managed to get it agreed to, that for once they should try to kindle exhilaration...

A BRIGHT moon shone out from among floating, silvery clouds, over snowy fields and forests in the dead of night. The buildings and the flagstaff at Norby cast shadows upon the s...

DOWN by the fjord lay a little one-storeyed house, half hidden by large trees within a garden. Here lived Fru Thora Skard, the widow of the inspector of forests. Upon the death...

All down the table the talk was exclusively of Norby. It came naturally. Two farmers told of the King's last journey through the district, when Norby quietly went up and took hi...

While the stranger lay full length upon the grass, his head resting on his wallet, he related how he had met a she-bear and two cubs west of the Great Snow-field. As news from t...

MADS HERLUFSEN in the meantime sat for hours together looking across at Norby. In his eyes Norby Farm was a kind of fox's den away there under the fir-clad slope, upon which he...

HENRY WANGEN descended from the snow-covered train from Christiania, and with his bag in his hand hurried homewards. He exchanged greetings with no one. His failure would ruin h...

KNUT NORBY drove home through the still night with Marit and Ingeborg, as the other two stayed on for the dancing. A golden moon had risen above the hills in the east, and shone...

EVERY evening lately, Ingeborg Norby had sat and read the Bible to the pensioners in the little house. The pensioners were four in number, the dairymaid and the two farm-servant...