Modern Swedish Masterpieces: Short StoriesHeidenstam, Verner von
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Modern Swedish Masterpieces: Short Stories
Heidenstam, Verner von
Short stories, Swedish -- Translations into English; Swedish fiction -- Translations into English
“Yes, good luck to you, Bloom!” answered the guard without taking his
eyes from the float, which just then took a dip under the water. “That
was a bite, but the fish only took the bread and left the hook to the
landlord.”
A steam sloop came sputtering up under the bridge on its way to the city
and lay to at the nearest landing. For a moment Bloom was tempted to go
with it, but came back directly to his first idea: the restaurant on
Brenchurch Street, beefsteak, onions and beer, so he said good-bye to
the guard and went ahead on the Langholm Road. He felt himself from of
old most at home in the section of South Stockholm between
Skinnarviksberg, Lilyholm Bridge and Langholm.
* * * * *
When Bloom emerged, full-fed and contented, from his restaurant, his
first impulse was to buy a new black felt hat, for the old one inclined
too much to yellow-brown, and he had heard sometime or other that the
hat makes the gentleman. After that he went to the nearest barber shop
on Horn Street and had them remove the stubble from his chin, together
with part of that on his cheeks; retaining, however--besides his
mustaches, of course--a couple of small mutton-chop whiskers next the
ears. After that he went slantwise across the street to a general
outfitter’s, whence he came out attired in a clean white collar, a
blue-edged dickey, and a brilliant light-blue necktie. A few steps
further up the street he stopped before a photographer’s show-case and
looked at himself in the glass. He was greatly moved at the
transformation he had undergone. A ribbon-like strip of paper was
picturesquely wound among portraits of serving-maids, dressmakers,
Salvation Army soldiers, recruits, and a parson with a parson’s collar;
and when he read on this that he could have half-a-dozen card-sized
pictures made for two and a half crowns, he felt an irresistible
temptation to go up and be photographed. It was partly that the day was
significant for him, so that the likeness he had taken now would be a
memento for the rest of his life; partly, too, that he had a dark
foreboding, which he tried to put by, that it might be long before he
would again be in a condition equally worthy to be immortalized in a
picture. Furthermore, he had had himself photographed at various times
previously, and he remembered with satisfaction the agreeable feeling he
had experienced in seeing his ego in an, as it were, glorified aspect,
without spots on his coat or damaging inequalities in his complexion,
handsomely shaved and with a dignified and engaging expression. He went
up to the photographer, combed his hair solicitously before a mirror,
and sat down motionless before the camera with his hands on his knees.
“Will it be good?” he asked, when the sitting was over.
“The gentleman will look like a bank director,” answered the
photographer after he had glanced at the plate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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