Chapter 30 - Page 2

said she, once when she was alone with Otto. "That is wise! You can spend some time with us in Funen, and gather strength for your journey. Yes, the journey will do you good!"

"I hope so!" answered Otto. "I am perhaps able to become as interesting as your cousin, as amiable!"

"That would be requiring too much from you!" said Sophie, bantering him. "You will never have his humor, his facility in catching up character. You will only preach against the depravity of the Parisians; you will only be able to appreciate the melancholy grandeur of Switzerland and the solitude of the Hungarian forests."

"You would make a misanthrope of me, which I by no means am."

"But you have an innate talent for this character!" answered Sophie. "Something will certainly be polished away by this journey, and it is on account of this change that I rejoice."

"Must one, then, have a light, fickle mood to please you?" asked Otto.

"Yes, certainly!" answered Sophie, ironically.

"Then it is true what your cousin told me!" said Otto. "If one will be fortunate with the ladies, one must at least be somewhat frivolous, fond of pleasure, and fickle,--that makes one interesting. Yes, he has made himself acquainted with the world, he has experience in everything!"

"Yes, perfectly!" said Sophie, and laughed aloud.

Otto was silent, with contracted brow.

"I wish you sunshine!" said Sophie, and smiling raised her finger. Otto remained unchanged--he wrinkled his brow.

"You must change very much!" said she, half gravely; and danced out of the room.

Three weeks passed by, rich in great events in the kingdom of the heart; it was still a diplomatic secret: the eyes betrayed it by their pantomimic language, the mouth alone was silent, and it is after all the deciding power.

Otto visited the merchant's family. Maren had departed just the day before. In vain had she awaited his visit throughout the three weeks.

"You quite forget your true friends!" said the ladies. "Believe us, Maja was a little angry with you, and yet we have messages. Now she is sailing over the salt sea."

This was not precisely the case; she was already on land, and just at this moment was driving over the brown heath, thinking of Copenhagen and the pleasures there, and of the sorrow also--it is so sad to be forgotten by a friend of childhood! Otto was so handsome, so clever--she did not dream at all how handsome and clever she herself would appear at home. Beauty and cleverness they had discovered in her before she left; now she had been in the capital, and that gives relief.

The little birds fluttered round the carriage; perhaps they sang to her what should happen in two years: