She dived down deeper than ever, laughing continually. The room they were in was oblong; Kallem saw directly that it was the dining-room; probably also the waiting-room for patients. The inner room, with windows both to the front and to the southeast, was of course his work-room; he would receive people there when not at the hospital. He did not go into it, but out of the dining-room and into the passage again. To the right was the kitchen door. He was met by an array of beer-bottles on the kitchen dresser; some empty, some full. "Whose are those bottles?" "They belong to the saddler." "To the paper-hanger, you mean?" Then it dawned upon Kallem what kind of "hindrances" he had alluded to; and that he was quite tipsy at that very moment, and his wife still tipsier! That was why the men had been so long before they moved in the piano; they had been treated all round. "Will you kindly ask the Dane to come to me here?" The girl went directly, and directly too appeared the round, shining face with hundreds of twinkles in his eye; his wife was behind him, peeping out first at one side, then at the other. "Are those your bottles?" "Not altogether." "Have you gone shares with the others?" "Yes, in drinking them." "But did you buy them?" "Yes, I bought the beer, but not the bottles; they are to be returned." The woman was heard to titter. "May I ask what is your name?" "Sören Pedersen, that's my name." "Look here, Sören Pedersen, will you let me buy the bottles of you?" "Do you mean the beer?" "Yes, the beer." "All right, then." "We shall have something, then, to drink to-night; for we must work all night, we must be ready to-morrow. We will help you with your work. Do you agree to that?" "As you wish, doctor." "Then will you kindly sup with us this evening?" Then Kallem went upstairs in three-four strides; Ragni was out on the balcony, standing in the sun. She turned to him. He asked if she had finished her prayer? Yes, she was quite ready. He, too, stood on the balcony, looking at the little islet at play beside the mother-island--it was visible from there--and the sea with its ripples, and the mountains yonder in distant grandeur. He looked over to the right, where the minister lived--she noticed it at once. "They would never dare to treat us as though we were not married, eh? It will be amusing to see what they do!" She drew him in and pointed to the colour of the walls in their bed-room; it was exactly as she had asked for it to be, white, a dull oil-colour. Everything was to be white up there except the long curtains and hangings draped from the ceiling down over both beds, at the balcony windows, and before the door; they were blue in colour and pattern, and matched the ornamentations on the beds and the other furniture. Then she became very talkative; but Kallem wanted to see the hospital, and she thought she would like to go with him.