Things are very much as usual at home."
"No change, then?"
"Well, no--I must get back now."
Tidemand got up. Ole followed him to the door and said:
"It wasn't you who didn't care how matters turn out, was it? Well, I am
glad you came, anyway."
The awkward fellow! This was Ole Henriksen's way of stiffening a comrade's
backbone.
But Tidemand did not go at once; he stood there with his hand on the
door-knob and shifted his eyes nervously from place to place.
"It can hardly be thought strange if I get a little downhearted once in a
while," he said. "Things do not look very bright for me; I do my best to
fix everything up, but I do not make much headway, not very much, no.
Well, we'll have to wait and see how matters shape themselves. I think it
is getting a little better, thank God."
"Does your wife keep at home more now? It seems to me that--"
"Hanka has been a good mother to the children lately. I have been very
happy because of that; it has brought us closer together, as it were. She
is busy fitting the children out for the country. It is wonderful the
things she gets together; I have never seen anything like it--blue and
white and red dresses! They are lying home; I look at them whenever I am
home.
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