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One Day
by
The other men took part in the dancing, but Aaroe did not dance. There was something about him which she thought specially charming; a reserved air of distinction, a polish in his address, a deference of that quiet kind which alone could have appealed to her. His walk gave the impression that he kept half his strength in reserve, and this was the same in everything. He was tall, but not broad-shouldered; the small, somewhat narrow head, set on a rather long neck. She had never before noticed the way in which he turned his head. She felt now that there could be something, yes, almost musical about it.
The room, and all that passed in it, seemed to float in light, but suddenly this light was gone. A little later she heard some one say, “Where is Aksel Aaroe? Has he left?”
Aaroe was not at home for very long that winter. He had already spent two years at Havre, from which place he had recently returned; he was now going for a couple of years to Hull. Before this, music had been a favourite pursuit with Ella; she had especially loved and studied harmony, but from this time forward she devoted herself to melody. All music had given her pleasure and she had made some progress in it; but now it became speech to her. She herself spoke in it or another spoke to her. Now, whoever she was with, there was always one as well, she was never alone now, not in the street, not at home; of this the plait was the sacred symbol.
In the course of the spring Fru Holmbo met Ella in the street as she was coming from the pastor’s house with her prayer-book in her hand.
“Are you going to be confirmed?” asked Fru Holmbo.
“Yes.”
“I have a message for you; can you guess from whom?”
Now, Fru Holmbo was a friend of Aksel Aaroe’s sister and very intimate with the family. Ella blushed and could not answer.
“I see that you know who it is from,” said Fru Holmbo, and Ella blushed more than ever.
With a rather superior smile–and the prettiest lady in the town had a superabundance of them–she said, “Aksel Aaroe is not fond of writing. We have only just received his first letter since he left; but in it he writes that when we see ‘the girl with the plait,’ we are to remember him to her.’ She cried at Moehring’s song; other people might have done so too,'” he wrote.
The tears sprang to Ella’s eyes.
“No, no,” said Fru Holmbo consolingly, “there is no harm in that.”
CHAPTER II
Two years later, in the course of the winter, Ella was coming quickly up from the ice with her skates in her hand. She wore her new tight-fitting jacket for the first time; in fact, it was principally this jacket which had tempted her out. The plait hung jauntily down from under her grey cap. It was longer and thicker than ever; it throve wonderfully.
As usual, she went round by “Andresen’s at the corner.” To see the house was enough. Just as her eyes rested on it, Aksel Aaroe appeared in the doorway. He came slowly down the steps. He was at home again! His fair beard lay on the dark fur of his coat, a fur cap covered his low forehead and came down almost to his eyes; those large, attractive eyes. They looked at one another; they had to meet and pass; he smiled as he raised his cap, and she–stood still and curtseyed, like a schoolgirl in a short frock. For two years she had not dropped a curtsey, or done otherwise than bow like a grown-up person. Short people are most particular about this privilege; but to him, before whom she specially wished to appear grown-up, she had stood still and curtseyed as when he had last seen her. Occupied by this mishap she rushed into another. She said to herself, “Do not look round, keep yourself stiff, do not look round; do you hear?” But at the corner, just as she was turning away from him, she did look back for all that, and saw him do the same. From that moment there were no other people, no houses, no time or place. She did not know how she got home, or why she lay crying on her bed, with her face in the pillow.