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Page 45
With a flat, meagre little bundle, and a million of rich hopes,
the grateful nephew now allowed himself to be shaken up hill and
down hill, upon an uncommonly uncomfortable and stiff-necked
peasant cart, and arrived, head-over-heels, in the capital.
In the inn where I alighted, I ordered for myself a little--only a
very little breakfast,--a trifle--a bit of bread-and-butter--a few
eggs.
The landlord and a fat gentleman walked up and down the saloon and
chatted. "Nay, that I must say," said the fat gentleman, "this
Merchant P--, who died the day before yesterday, he was a fine
fellow."
"Yes, yes," thought I; "aha, aha, a fellow, who had heaps of
money! Hear you, my friend" (to the waiter), "could not you get me
a bit of venison, or some other solid dish? Hear you, a cup of
bouillon would not be amiss. Look after it, but quick!"
"Yes," said mine host now, "it is strong! Thirty thousand dollars,
and they banko! Nobody in the whole world could have dreamed of
it--thirty thousand!"
"Thirty thousand!" repeated I, in my exultant soul,
"thirty thousand! Hear you, waiter! Make haste, give me here
thirty then--; and give me here banko--no give me here a glass of
wine, I mean;" and from head to heart there sang in me, amid the
trumpet-beat of every pulse in alternating echoes, "Thirty thousand!
Thirty thousand!"
"Yes," continued the fat gentlemen, "and would you believe that in
the mass of debts there are nine hundred dollars for credit
and five thousand dollars for champagne. And now all his
creditors stand there prettily and open their mouths; all the thing
in the house are hardly worth two farthings; and out of the house
they find, as the only indemnification--a calash!"
"Aha, that is something quite different! Hear you, youth, waiter!
Eh, come you here! take that meat, and the bouillon, and the wine
away again; and hear you, observe well, that I have not eaten a
morsel of all this. How could I, indeed; I, that ever since I
opened my eyes this morning have done nothing else but eat (a
horrible untruth!), and it just now occurs to me that it would
therefore be unnecessary to pay money for such a superfluous
feast."
"But you have actually ordered it," replied the waiter, in a state
of excitement.
"My friend," I replied, and seized myself behind the ear, a place
whence people, who are in embarrassment, are accustomed in some
sort of way to obtain the necessary help--"my friend, it was a
mistake for which I must not be punished; for it was not my fault
that a rich heir, for whom I ordered the breakfast, is all at once
become poor,--yes, poorer than many a poor devil, because he has
lost more than the half of his present means upon the future. If
he, under these circumstances, as you may well imagine, cannot pay
for a dear breakfast, yet it does not prevent my paying for the
eggs which I have devoured, and giving you over and above
something handsome for your trouble, as business compels me to
move off from here immediately."
By my excellent logic, and the "something handsome," I removed
from my throat, with a bleeding heart and a watering mouth, that
dear breakfast, and wandered forth into the city, with my little
bundle under my arm, to seek for a cheap room, while I considered
where I w as to get the money for it.
In consequence of the violent coming in contact of hope and
reality I had a little headache. But when I saw upon my ramble a
gentleman, ornamented with ribbons and stars, alight from a
magnificent carriage, who had a pale yellow complexion, a deeply-
wrinkled brow, and above his eyebrows an intelligible trace of ill-
humour; when I saw a young count, with whom I had become
acquainted in the University of Upsala, walking along as if he
were about to fall on his nose from age and weariness of life,
I held up my head, inhaled the air, which accidentally
(unfortunately) at this place was filled with the smell of smoked
sausage, and extolled poverty, and a pure heart.
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