d and stood in a dense crowd outside,
that the ball was going on.

All the blood in him seemed suddenly to stand still, and he approached
slowly and hesitatingly, his face grey with apprehension.

He stood outside for a long time, gazing in at the large, lighted
windows. Dark shadows passed behind the blinds, an unceasing variety of
heads and shoulders.

There where the blind was pulled a little to one side he saw the
round-headed Gunda again; the back of her head was so near him that he
would have liked to push the pane in and ask her where Silla was?

He felt the shaking of the floor and the music twice as much where he
was standing; it was as if the whole ball had got into his head.

Now he caught a glimpse of a sloping shoulder and half a back in an
overcoat, with a cane sticking out of the owner's pocket--and part of a
fashionable hat-brim.

The figure was smoking a cigar and bending down as if to talk.

To whom?--To whom?

For it was Ludvig Veyergang's, that narrow, straight back, that seemed
in its pride as if it could not bend above the hips.

And then that way with his arm and his eye-glass.

Now he was gone; he must be dancing.

The clear glimpse he could get through the little opening in the blind
was dimmed by moisture. Only when a heavy drop ran down the pane in the
heat inside, could he catch a fraction of a glimpse through the streak.

There came Veyergang's shadow, with stick and hat again, and lower down
the crooked outline of a woman's head in lively gesticulation.

Again the figure with the stick disappeared, and Nikolai prepared to
watch for it.

A drop just wept a smooth streak down the pane, and the next moment he
caught a glimpse of a dancing figure--only a bent head and a half-hidden
face.

He had seen enough--more than if he had had a hundred chandeliers to see
by.

Immediately after, Nikolai was in the stream in front of the door.

It opened and closed incessantly to admit those who gave up tickets, and
disclosed, in misty perspective, a miscellaneous confusion of hot,
flushed faces.

Now and then a pair came out and hastened up to the large restaurant.

He heard both exclamations and taunts.

"Now then! now then!" came from the crowd.

Nikolai only worked his way towards the door. If once he stood there--!

"Ticket?"

Nikolai did not answer.

"Ticket, man? Ticket?"

Nikolai only pressed boldly a step nearer.

The police-constable made a movement, but met a loo