"Is that so? Where is it going to be?" "In Milde's studio. You are going, I hope?" "Yes; I will be there." They went back to their accounts. "Lord! do you remember the old times when we sat on the school bench together?" said Tidemand. "None of us sported a beard then. It seems as if it were only a couple of months ago, I remember it so distinctly." Ole put down his pen. The accounts were finished. "I should like to speak to you about something--you mustn't be offended, Andreas--No; take another glass, old fellow, do! I'll get another bottle; this wine is really not fit for company." And he hurried out; he looked quite confused. "What is the matter with him?" thought Tidemand. Ole returned with another bottle, downy as velvet, with trailing cobwebs; he pulled the cork. "I don't know how you'll like this," he said, and sniffed the glass. "Try it, anyhow; it is really--I am sure you'll like it; I have forgotten the vintage, but it is ancient." Tidemand sniffed, sipped, put down his glass, and looked at Ole. "It isn't half bad, is it?" "No," said Tidemand, "it is not. You should not have done this, Ole." "Ho! don't be silly--a bottle of wine!" Pause. "I thought you wanted to speak to me about something," asked Tidemand. "Yes, well--I don't know that I do, exactly." Ole went over and locked the door. "I thought that, as you cannot possibly know anything about it, I had perhaps better tell you that people are talking about you, calumniating you, blackening your reputation, so to speak. And you hear nothing, of course." "Are they blackening me? What are they saying?" "Oh, you can feel above anything they say. Never mind what they say. The gossip is that you neglect your wife; that you frequent restaurants although you have a home of your own; that you leave her to herself while you enjoy life single-handed. You are above such insinuations, of course. But, anyway, why do you eat away from home and live so much in restaurants? Not that I have any business to--Say, this wine is not half bad, believe me! Take another glass; do me the favour--" Tidemand's eyes had suddenly become clear and sharp. He got up, made a few turns across the floor, and went back to the sofa. "I am not at all surprised that people are talking," he said. "I myself have done what I could to start the gossip; I know that only too well. But I have ceased to care about anything any more." Tidemand shrugged his shoulders and got up again. Drifting back and forth across the floor, staring fixedly straight ahead, he murmured again that he had ceased to care about anything. "But listen, old friend, I told you you need not pay the slightest attention to such contemptible gossip," objected Ole.