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Page 12
Bagger became, through the influence of the wine, the company, and
the sight of the happy bridal pair, six years younger. His soul
was carried away from criminal and police courts, and found itself
on high, as in the attic chamber, with a vision of the small
tinted clouds and the angel-heads. The sudden gust of wind carried
him quite back to the moment when he sent out his note as the
Norwegian heroes their high-seat pillars: the spirit of his
twenty-fourth year came wholly over him, queerly mixed with the
half-regretful reflection of the thirtieth year, with fun,
inclination to talk and to breathe; and he exclaimed, as he rose
to acknowledge the toast:
"I am engaged."
"Ay! ay! Congratulate! congratulate!" sounded from all sides.
"This gust of wind, which nearly extinguished the lights, brought
me a message from my betrothed!"
"What?" "What is it?" asked the company, their heads at that
moment not in the least condition for guessing charades.
"Counsellor Bagger, have you, like the Doge of Venice, betrothed
yourself to the sea or storm?" asked the bridegroom.
"Hear him, the fortunate! sitting upon the golden doorstep to the
kingdom of love! Let him surmise and guess all that concerns
Cupid, for he has obtained the inspiration, the genial sympathy,"
exclaimed Bagger. "Yes," he continued, "just like the Doge of
Venice, but not as aristocratic! From my attic chamber, where I
sat on my examination-day, guided by Cupid, in a manner which it
would take too long to narrate, I gave to the whirlwind a love-
letter, and at any moment SHE can step forward with my letter, my
promise, and demand me soul and body."
"Who is it, then?" asked bridegroom and bride, with the most
earnest interest.
"Yes, how can I tell that? Do I know the whirlwind's roads?"
"Was the letter signed with your name?"
"No; but don't you think I will acknowledge my handwriting?"
replied Bagger, quite earnestly.
This earnestness with reference to an obligation which no one
understood became comical; and Bagger felt at the moment that he
was on the brink of the ridiculous. Trying to collect himself, he
said:
"Is it not an obligation we all have? Do not both bride and
bridegroom acknowledge that long before they knew each other the
obligation was present?"
"Yes, yes!" exclaimed the bridegroom.
"And the whirlwind, accident, the unknown power, brought them
together so that the obligation was redeemed?"
"Yes, yes!"
"Let us, then," continued Bagger, "drink a toast to the wind, the
accident, the moving power, unknown and yet controlling. To those
of us who, as yet, are unprovided for and under forty, it will at
some time undoubtedly bring a bride; to those who are already
provided for will come the expected in another form. So a toast to
the wind that came in here and flickered the lights; to the
unknown, that brings us the wished for; and to ourselves, that we
may be prepared to receive it when announced."
"Bravo!" exclaimed the bridegroom, looking upon his bride.
"Puh-h-h!" thought Bagger, seating himself with intense relief, "I
have come out of it somewhat decently after all. The deuce take me
before I again express a sentimentality."
How Counsellor Bagger that night could have fallen asleep, between
memory, or longing and discontent, is difficult to tell, had he
not on his arrival home found a package of papers, an interesting
theft case. He sat down instantly to read, and day dawned ere they
were finished. His last thought, before his eyelids closed, was,--
Two years in the House of Correction.
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