Growth of the Soil, Knut Hamsun [best self help books to read txt] 📗

of birth and infanticide. Here the evidence was again recapitulated from beginning to end. Then came the usual injunction as to being duly conscious of responsibility, which the court had heard before, and finally, the not uncommon reminder that in cases of doubt, the scale should be allowed to turn in favour of the accused.

And now all was clear and ready.

The judges left the room and went into another apartment. They were to consider a paper with certain questions, which one of them had with him. They were away five minutes, and returned with a “No” to all the questions.

No, the girl Barbro had not killed her child.

Then the presiding judge said a few more words, and declared that the girl Barbro was now free.

The courthouse emptied, the comedy was over.⁠ ⁠…

Someone takes Axel Ström by the arm: it is Geissler. “H’m,” said he, “so you’re done with that now!”

“Ay,” said Axel.

“But they’ve wasted a lot of your time to no purpose.”

“Ay,” said Axel again. But he was coming to himself again gradually, and after a moment he added: “None the less, I’m glad it was no worse.”

“No worse?” said Geissler. “I’d have liked to see them try!” He spoke with emphasis, and Axel fancied Geissler must have had something to do with the case himself; that he had intervened. Heaven knows if, after all, it had not been Geissler himself that had led the whole proceedings and gained the result he wished. It was a mystery, anyway.

So much at least Axel understood, that Geissler had been on his side all through.

“I’ve a deal to thank you for,” said he, offering his hand.

“What for?” asked Geissler.

“Why, for⁠—for all this.”

Geissler turned it off shortly. “I’ve done nothing at all. Didn’t trouble to do, anything⁠—’twasn’t worth while.” But for all that, Geissler was not displeased, maybe, at being thanked; it was as if he had been waiting for it, and now it had come. “I’ve no time to stand talking now,” he said. “Going back tomorrow, are you? Good. Goodbye, then, and good luck to you.” And Geissler strolled off across the street.

On the boat going home, Axel encountered the Lensmand and his wife, Barbro and the two girls called as witnesses.

“Well,” said Fru Heyerdahl, “aren’t you glad it turned out so well?”

Axel said, “Yes”; he was glad it had come out all right in the end.

The Lensmand himself put in a word, and said: “This is the second of these cases I’ve had while I’ve been here⁠—first with Inger from Sellanraa, and now this. No, it’s no good trying to countenance that sort of thing⁠—justice must take its course.”

But Fru Heyerdahl guessed, no doubt, that Axel was not over pleased with her speech of the day before, and tried to smooth it over, to make up for it somehow now. “You understood, of course, why I had to say all that about you yesterday?”

“H’m⁠—ye⁠—es,” said Axel.

“You understood, of course, I know. You didn’t think I wanted to make things harder for you in any way. I’ve always thought well of you, and I don’t mind saying so.”

“Ay,” said Axel, no more. But he was pleased and touched at her words.

“Yes, I mean it,” said Fru Heyerdahl. “But I was obliged to try and shift the blame a little your way, otherwise Barbro would have been convicted, and you too. It was all for the best, indeed it was.”

“I thank you kindly,” said Axel.

“And it was I and no other that went about from one to another through the place, trying to do what I could for you both. And you saw, of course, that we all had to do the same thing⁠—make out that you were partly to blame, so as to get you both off in the end.”

“Ay,” said Axel.

“Surely you didn’t imagine for a moment that I meant any harm to you? When I’ve always thought so well of you!”

Ay, this was good to hear after all the disgrace of it. Axel, at any rate, was so touched that he felt he must do something, give Fru Heyerdahl something or other, whatever he could find⁠—a piece of meat perhaps, now autumn was come. He had a young bull.⁠ ⁠…

Fru Lensmand Heyerdahl kept her word; she took Barbro to live with her. On board the steamer, too, she looked after the girl, and saw that she was not cold, nor hungry; took care, also, that she did not get up to any nonsense with the mate from Bergen. The first time it occurred, she said nothing, but simply called Barbro to her. But a little while after there was Barbro with him again, her head on one side, talking Bergen dialect and smiling. Then her mistress called her up and said: “Really, Barbro, you ought not to be going on like that among the men now. Remember what you’ve just been through, and what you’ve come from.”

“I was only talking to him a minute,” said Barbro. “I could hear he was from Bergen.”

Axel did not speak to her. He noticed that she was pale and clear-skinned now, and her teeth were better. She did not wear either of his rings.⁠ ⁠…

And now here is Axel tramping up to his own place once more. Wind and rain, but he is glad at heart; a mowing-machine and a harrow down at the quay; he had seen them. Oh, that Geissler! Never a word had he said in town about what he had sent. Ay, an unfathomable man was Geissler.

VIII

Axel had no long time to rest at home, as it turned out; the autumn gales led to fresh trouble and bothersome work that he had brought upon himself: the telegraph apparatus on his wall announced that the line was out of order.

Oh, but he had been thinking overmuch of the money, surely, when he took on that post. It had been a nuisance from the start. Brede Olsen had fairly threatened him when he went down to fetch the apparatus and tools;