some sort of a
table or something like that by which they figured things out, for they
always get the same result, no matter what it may be. How alike they are
to each other, these people! Every one of them knows the same things and
talks about the same things, and all of them have the same words and the
same opinions."

"You don't mean to say," Camilla protested, "that Carlsen and Ronholt
have the same opinions."

"Yes, they are the finest of all, they belong to different parties!
Their fundamental principles are as different as night and day. No, they
are not. They are in such agreement that it is a perfect joy. Perhaps
there may be some little point about which they don't agree; perhaps,
it is merely a misunderstanding. But heaven help me, if it isn't
pure comedy to listen to them. It is as if they had prearranged to do
everything possible not to agree. They begin by talking in a loud voice,
and immediately talk themselves into a passion. Then one of them in his
passion says something which he doesn't mean, and then the other one
says the direct opposite which he doesn't mean either, and then the one
attacks that which the other doesn't mean, and the other that which the
first one didn't mean, and the game is on."

"But what have they done to you?"

"They annoy me, these fellows. If you look into their faces it is just
as if you had it under seal that nothing especial is ever going to
happen in the world in the future." Camilla laid down her sewing,
went over and took hold of the corners of his coat collar and looked
roguishly and questioningly at him.

"I cannot bear Carlsen," he said angrily, and tossed his head.

"Well, and then."

"And then you are very, very sweet," he murmured with a comic
tenderness.

"And then?"

"And then," he burst out, "he looks at you and listens to you and talks
to you in a way I don't like. He is to quit that, for you are mine and
not his. Aren't you? You are not his, not his in any way. You are mine,
you have bonded yourself to me as the doctor did to the devil; you are
mine, body and soul, skin and bones, till all eternity."

She nodded a little frightened, looked trustfully at him; her eyes
filled with tears, then she pressed close to him and he put his arms
around her, bent over her, and kissed her on the forehead.

The same evening Mogens went to the station with the councilor who had
received a sudden order in reference to an official tour which he was to
make. On t