Irgens glanced at Aagot. She did not appear to be listening, but was talking eagerly with Mrs. Hanka. Irgens turned to Milde and told him curtly that there were certain impertinences which even friends were not supposed to submit to--was that clear enough? Milde burst out laughing. He had never heard anything funnier. Did they get offended? He had not meant anything of a harmful nature, nothing offensive, mentally or physically! The idea simply had tickled his sense of humour. But if it wasn't funny, all right.... Ole took out his manuscript. "It is something out of the ordinary," he said. "Ojen calls it 'Memories.'" "Let me read it," said Norem quickly. "I am, at any rate, supposed to know a little about reading." Ole handed him the manuscript. "Jehovah is very busy--" began Norem. "Ojen has expressly stated in a marginal note that it is not to be Jahve; now you know it!" Jehovah is very busy; Jehovah has much to attend to. He was with me one night when I wandered in the forest; He descended to me while I lay on my face in prayer. I lay there praying in the night, and the forest was silent. The night oppressed me like an unbending, disjointed absurdity, and the night was like a silence in which something breathing and mute was abroad. Then Jehovah descended to me. When Jehovah came the air rushed away from Him like a wake; birds were blown away like chaff, and I clung to the sod and the trees and the rocks. "You are calling me?" said Jehovah. "I call out in my distress!" I answered. And Jehovah spoke: "You want to know what to choose in life, Beauty or Love or Truth?" And Jehovah said: "You want to know?" And when He said: "You want to learn that?" I did not answer, but was silent; for He knew my thoughts. Then Jehovah touched my eyes, and I beheld: I saw a tall woman against the skies. She wore no garments, and when she moved her body shimmered like white silk, and she wore no garments; for her body quivered toward me in rapture. And she stood against the skies in a sunrise, yes, in a crimson dawn; and the sun shone upon her, and a scarlet light streamed up through the skies, yes, a light of blood surrounded her. And she was tall and white, and her eyes were like two blue flowers which brushed my soul when she looked at me; and when she spoke to me she entreated me and urged me toward her, and her voice was like a sweet phosphorescence with a taste of the sea. I rose from the earth and stretched forth my arms toward her, and when I stretched both my arms toward her she again implored me, and her body was odorous with rapture. And I was gloriously stirred in my inmost being, and I rose and gave her my lips in the morning glow, and my eyes fell.