When Odegaard rung for his coffee next morning, he was informed that Yngve Vold, the merchant, had already called twice to see him. It annoyed him to have to hold intercourse with a stranger just then, but one who sought him so early must have an important errand. He was scarcely dressed before Yngve Vold came again. "You are surprised, I dare say? So am I. Good morning!"--They shook hands, and he laid his light hat upon the table. "You rise late, I have been here twice before; I have something important at heart, and I must speak with you!"--"Take a seat if you please!" he seated himself in an easy chair.--"Thank you, thank you, I would rather walk, I am too excited to sit. I am quite beside myself since the day before yesterday, stark mad, neither more nor less; and it is your doing, partly!"--"Mine?"--"Yes, yours. You brought the girl forward, no one thought about her, no one noticed her except you. But now I have never seen, no, as true as I live, never seen anything so matchless, anything so--well isn't it? No, over the whole of Europe I have never seen such a cursedly curly-haired wonder,--have you? I got no peace, I was bewitched, she was mixed up in everything, I went away, came back again, impossible.--isn't it? Didn't know at first who she was ... the Fisher Girl, they said,--the Senorita they should have called her, the gipsy, the witch; all fire, eyes, bosom, hair,--what?--sparkling, hopping, laughing, trilling, blushing,--something----! Ran after her, you see, up among the trees in the forest, calm evening, ... she stood, I stood, a few words, song, dance,--and then?... well then I gave her my chain, as true as I live, a minute before, I had never thought of it! Next time, same place, same chase, she was afraid, and I;--well,--would you believe it? I could not say a single word, dare not touch her; but when she came back again, would you think it? I proposed to her, I had not thought about it a second before. Now yesterday I was proving myself, stayed away from her, but then faith and soul I'm mad, yes,--I CANNOT, I MUST be with her; if I don't get her I shall shoot myself slap out, there, that's the history. I don't care what my mother says, nor the town, it's no place, no place at all,--she must go away, you see, away, far away from here, she must be 'comme il faut,' go abroad, to France, Paris, I pay, and you arrange. I might go with her myself, live elsewhere, not stay any longer in this little hole; but the fish you see! I'd like to make something out of the place, but it's all in a torpor, no thought, no speculation, but the fish? They don't know how to manage the fish; the Spaniards complain, it must be done in a fresh way, new drying, new curing, the town must rise, business make headway, the fish!--Where was it I left off? the fish, the Fisher Girl,--that suits well: the fish, the Fisher Girl, ha, ha, ha,--to be sure: I pay, you arrange, she shall be my wife, and then----"