Mysteries Read Online Free PDF Page B

like nobody else around here. But perhaps you haven’t talked to her yet?”
    “Oh yes, I may have talked to her, too.” And Nagel adds pensively to himself, Was that Miss Kielland?
    “Ah, but not properly; you didn’t have a long talk with her, did you? That’s something you can look forward to. She laughs out loud when she’s amused by something, and often she laughs at just about anything, she’s so lighthearted. 3 If you get to talk with her, you’ll see how attentively she listens to what you’re saying, until you’ve finished, and then she’ll answer you. And when she answers, her cheeks often turn red. That’s how she is, it goes to her head; I’ve often noticed this when she’s been talking to someone, and then she becomes very beautiful. 4 But with me it’s different; she chats with me when it so happens and doesn’t stand on ceremony. For example, if I walked up to her on the street, she would pause and give me her hand even if she was in a hurry. If you don’t believe me, just pay attention sometime.”
    “I can well believe it. So Miss Kielland is a good friend of yours?”
    “In the sense, simply, that she’s always patient with me. It cannot be otherwise. I go to the parsonage now and then when I’m invited, and as far as I can see I haven’t been unwelcome even when I went there uninvited. When I was sick Miss Dagny even lent me books; in fact, she brought them herself, carrying them under her arm all the way.”
    “What sort of books could that have been?”
    “You mean, what sort of books could it have been, since I was able to read and understand them?”
    “This time you misunderstand me. Your question is very shrewd, but you misunderstand me. You are an interesting man. I meant, what sort of books does the young lady herself own and read? I would be happy to know.”
    “Once, I remember, she brought me Garborg’s Peasant Students and two others; one, I think, was Turgenev’s Rudin. On another occasion she read aloud to me from Garborg’s The Irreconcilables.
    “And they were her own books?”
    “Well, they were her father’s. They had her father’s name in them.” 5
    “By the way, that time you went to Consul Andresen to thank him, as you were saying—”
    “Well, I wanted to thank him for his help.”
    “Certainly. But had the flag already been hoisted before you arrived that day?”
    “Yes, he’d had it hoisted for my sake. He told me so himself.”
    “Ah, there you see. So it wouldn’t be in honor of his daughter’s birthday that the flag was up?”
    “Oh yes, I suppose it was. That might very well be, and that’s fine, too. It would’ve been a shame not to put up the flag on Miss Fredrikke’s birthday.”
    “You’re certainly right there.... From one thing to another, how old is your uncle?”
    “He’s about seventy, I think. No, maybe not, but he’s over sixty anyway. He’s very old, but vigorous for his age. He can still read without glasses in a pinch.”
    “What’s his name?”
    “His name is Grøgaard, too. He and I are both called Grøgaard.”
    “Does your uncle have a house of his own or does he rent?”
    “He rents the room we live in, but he owns the coal shed. We have no difficulty paying the rent, if that’s what you’re thinking. We pay it with coal; I also contribute a little sometimes, doing odd jobs.”
    “Your uncle doesn’t carry coal around, does he?”
    “No, that falls to me. He measures it out and is in charge of everything, and I do the carrying. It’s easier for me to do the deliveries, you know, because I’m stronger.”
    “I see. And you have a woman to cook for you, right?”
    Pause.
    “Pardon me,” Miniman answers, “don’t take it amiss, but I’ll gladly leave if you want me to. 6 Perhaps you’re detaining me here to do me a kindness, since I don’t see how you can take any pleasure in hearing about my situation. Or maybe you’re talking to me for some other reason that escapes me, and if so it’s