Mysteries - Knut Hamsun [39]
“No, I beg your pardon,” he replied. “Well, if you like, why not? It doesn’t matter what you call it. I’ve been under a delightful spell all day, whether it’s hallucination or not. It began this morning while I was still in bed. I heard a fly buzzing, that was my first conscious thought after I awoke; then I saw the sunlight filtering in through a hole in the curtain, and at one stroke a delicate, light mood sprang up within me. I had a sensation of summer in my soul—try to imagine a soft rustle in the grass and that this rustle passes through your heart. Hallucination—well, maybe it was, I don’t know; but don’t forget that I must’ve been in a certain prior state of susceptibility, that I heard the fly exactly at the right moment, a moment in which I needed just that kind of light and in that amount, namely, a single ray of sunlight from a hole in the curtain, and so on. After I got up and went out, the first thing I saw was an attractive woman in a window” —he cast a glance at Miss Andresen, who lowered her eyes—“next I saw a great number of ships, then a little girl with a cat in her arms, and so forth, all of it things that made an impression on me. Shortly after I went into the woods, and that’s where I saw the boat and the half-moon, just by lying on my back and staring up at the sky.”
The women were still laughing, and the doctor, seemingly about to be infected by their snickering, said with a smile, “So you were fishing with a silver hook, were you?”
“Yes, with a silver hook.”
“Ha-ha-ha!”
Then all of a sudden Dagny Kielland flushed and said, “I can well understand that such an idea ... For my part, I can clearly see the boat and the sail, that blue half-moon—and just fancy, a white silver hook plumb through the water like that! I think it’s lovely.”
Unable to continue, she stammered and got stuck, her eyes on the ground.
Nagel immediately came to her rescue. “Yes, isn’t it? I said to myself straightaway: watch out, this is a white dream, an omen. It’s meant to be a warning to you: fish with clean hooks, clean hooks! You asked me, Doctor, if I play the violin? No, I don’t, not in the least. I’m dragging a violin case around with me, but there’s no violin in it; the case is full of dirty laundry, I’m sorry to say. I just thought it would look good to have a violin case as part of my luggage, that’s why I got it. This may give you a very poor impression of me, I don’t know, but it can’t be helped, though I’m truly sorry about it. Anyway, the silver hook is to blame for it all.”
The astonished ladies were no longer laughing; even the doctor, the deputy—Mr. Reinert, the judge’s deputy—and the secondary school teacher were agape. They all had their eyes on Nagel; the doctor clearly didn’t know what to think. What on earth was the matter with this total stranger? Nagel himself sat quietly down and didn’t seem to have anything further to say. The embarrassing silence appeared interminable. But then Mrs. Stenersen came to the rescue. Amiability incarnate, she acted like a mother to them all, making sure that nobody suffered harm. She deliberately wrinkled her brows to make herself look older than she was, so that her words would carry greater weight.
“You’ve come from abroad, haven’t you, Mr. Nagel?”
“Yes, madam.”
“From Helsingfors, I believe my husband said?”
“Yes, from Helsingfors. That is, most recently from Helsingfors. I’m an agronomist, I studied there for a while.”
Pause.
“And how do you like the town?” Mrs. Stenersen asked.
“Helsingfors?”
“No, our town.”
“Oh, it’s an excellent town, a charming place! I won’t ever leave, I really won’t. Heh-heh, well, don’t let it frighten you too much, I may still leave sometime, it all depends.... By the way,” he went on, getting up again, “if I intruded when I came, I sincerely apologize. The truth is, I would be very happy if you allowed me to sit here and share your company. Being a stranger to everybody, I don’t have many to associate with, so I’ve fallen into the habit of talking to myself too much. I’ll be very pleased if you completely ignore my presence