nt chatter.

He gave the young man something like an answer to his deep-felt remark,
and they continued to talk, leaning over the rail and looking out into
the restlessly illuminated, agitated evening. It turned out that the
traveling companion was a young merchant from Hamburg, who was using
his vacation for this pleasure trip ...

"Go and take a little trip," he was saying, "to Copenhagen wit de
_Dampfoot_, I tought, and so here I am, and so far it's very nice. But
dose lobster-omelettes, you know, dat wasn't de ting, you'll see, for
it's going to be a stormy night, de captain said so himself, and wit
such an indigestible supper in your stomach dat's no joke ..."

Tonio Kroeger listened to all this complaisant folly with a secretly
friendly feeling.

"Yes," he said, "they eat far too much up here anyway. That makes them
lazy and melancholy."

"Melancholy?" repeated the young man, looking at him in consternation
... "I suppose you are a stranger here?" he suddenly inquired ...

"Oh yes, I come from far away," answered Tonio Kroeger with a vague and
evasive gesture.

"But you are right," said the young man; "God knows you are right about
melancholy. I am almost always melancholy, but especially on such
evenings as dis, when de stars are in de sky." And again he propped up
his chin on thumb and forefinger.

He undoubtedly writes verses, thought Tonio Kroeger, merchant's verses
full of deeply honest feeling ...

The evening wore on, and the wind had now become so violent that it
interfered with conversation. So they resolved to sleep a little, and
wished each other good night.

Tonio Kroeger stretched himself out on the narrow bunk in his cabin, but
he found no rest. The strong wind and its pungent aroma had agitated
him strangely, and his heart was restless as if in anxious expectation
of something sweet. And the shock to the ship which resulted when it r
slid down a steep wave-slope and the screw raced convulsively out of
water, caused him severe nausea. He dressed again completely and
mounted into the open air.

Clouds were racing past the moon. The sea was dancing. There were no
round and uniform waves coming on in order, but as far as one could
see, in the pale and flickering light, the sea was torn up, lashed and
stirred into fragments; its flamelike, gigantic tongues licked and
leaped into the air, beside foam-filled abysses it cast up jagged and
improbable forms, and seemed with the force of monstrou