Mårbacka/Part 1, Chapter 5
The most trying part of the journey was over. The travellers were safely landed at Göteborg, where they cast away all care and set out in the glorious summer weather to view the city.
They wandered up Östra Hamngatan. Lieutenant Lagerlöf, stick in hand, hat pushed far back on his head, spectacles drawn far down on his nose, was in the lead. Behind him walked Fru Lagerlöf, holding Johan by the hand; behind her, Mamselle Lovisa, leading Anna; and last came Back-Kaisa who carried Selma on her arm—for it would never do, she thought, to let the little girl ride pig-back in a city.
Lieutenant Lagerlöf had donned a brown coat and light straw hat. Fru Lagerlöf and Mamselle Lovisa were attired in voluminous black silk skirts and fine velvet bodices, with white inserts and wrist-ruffles, over which they wore large cashmere shawls—folded tricornerwise—that almost concealed their dresses; and they had on Panama hats with broad, floppy brims. Johan was in black velvet breeches and smock, and Anna was dressed in a stiffly starched blue polkadot print worn over a crinoline; and she had both hat and parasol. Selma had on a dress exactly like Anna's, only she was wearing a sunbonnet instead of a hat, and had neither parasol nor crinoline.
The Lieutenant suddenly halted, turned, and looked back at his line of women and children. He nodded and smiled. It was plain he liked having them with him.
"Here none of us has ever been before," he said, "so now we'll look about."
They sauntered on up the street, now looking at the buildings, now at the canals and little bridges, at passing vehicles and promenaders, at signs and lamp-posts; but most of all, of course, they peered into shop windows.
The Lieutenant did not hurry them, he wanted them to see and enjoy as much as their eyes could take in.
"Nobody here knows us, so gaze as long as you like," said he.
Mamselle Lovisa stopped before a milliner's window, where a hat trimmed with white swansdown and pink rosebuds had caught her eye. There she stood, with Anna by the hand, as if rooted to the spot. And of course Lieutenant and Fru Lagerlöf, Johan, Back-Kaisa, and Selma were also obliged to stop before the swansdown hat. But Mamselle Lovisa was not thinking of them; she stood as in a trance. It tickled the Lieutenant to see her so carried away, though after a long, vain wait for her to "come back," so to speak, he lost patience.
"You're not thinking of copying that hat, Lovisa?" he said. "Why, that's more suitable for a girl of seventeen."
"It may be a pleasure perhaps for one who is not so young to look at pretty things," retorted Mamselle Lovisa, who, though past her first youth, was still comely and rather elegant in her attire.
When they were well away from the swansdown hat they came to a goldsmith's shop. Now it was the Lieutenant who stopped first. As he stood feasting his eyes on the trays of sparkling rings and bracelets, shining silver spoons and goblets, and much else displayed in the window, he ejaculated innocent oaths of delight.
"Here we'll go in!" he said abruptly.
"But, Gustaf!" Fru Lagerlöf protested, "we can't be buying such things now."
She laid a restraining hand on his arm, for he had already opened the big plate-glass door of the shop and was stepping in. There was nothing for the others to do but follow. By the time they were all inside he was over at the counter talking to a young clerk.
"No, thank you, I don't wish to buy anything," he said. "But, seeing so many choice things in the window, I thought I'd just step in and ask if I might also have a peep at the fine wares you have in the shop."
The clerk looked a bit uneasy, and seemed at a loss what to reply. Fru Lagerlöf and Mamselle Lovisa now stood with their hands on the Lieutenant's shoulders, trying to drag him away.
The goldsmith himself presently emerged from an inner room. He had evidently heard them come in, and probably thought he would do a brisk trade. Placing himself beside the clerk, he put the flat of his hands on the counter and inquired invitingly what was desired.
Lieutenant Lagerlöf repeated in substance what he had said to the clerk—that he would very much like to see the beautiful wares in the place though he could not afford to purchase any.
The goldsmith cocked his head and looked at the Lieutenant out of the corner of his eye.
"The gentleman, I take it, is a Värmlander?" he said.
"Hell, yes, of course I'm a Värmlander!" the Lieutenant wagged back. "What the deuce else should I be?"
Then everybody roared. The clerks all crowded round the Lieutenant, and from the inner rooms came a finely dressed woman—the wife of the goldsmith—who wanted to know what the fun was about.
Fru Lagerlöf and Mamselle Lovisa were so mortified they would have wished themselves back in the jolting carriage on the Karlstad road, or the rocking boat on stormy Vänern—anywhere but in that fine shop!
"Come now, Gustaf," they urged, "for pity's sake let us get out of here!"
"No, no, please don't go!" begged the goldsmith in his most persuasive tone. "We should be so happy to show you what we carry here."
He gave orders to the clerks, who ran up ladders and brought down everything from the shelves, opened cabinets, and took out all their contents, so that the long counter was literally covered with gold and silverware. The shop-keeper and his wife took up each article and showed it to the strangers, explaining its workmanship and what it was for.
Lieutenant Lagerlöf drew off his spectacles and polished the lenses with his silk handkerchief, the better to see. He picked up heavy silver tankards and examined their ornamentations, admiring and praising them.
"I say, Lovisa, this is worse than at the Deanery in Sunne!" he remarked to his sister.
Another time he held a large silver salver before the eyes of Back-Kaisa. "The Giant of Åsbergen doesn't dine off finer plate—eh, Kaisa?" he said.
The clerks sniggered and joked among themselves, having fun at his expense. The goldsmith and his wife were also enjoying themselves, but in a different way. They were friendly, and liked the Lieutenant. It was not long before they knew who he was, and whom he had with him; that he was on his way to Strömstad to seek a cure for a child who had some hip trouble and could not walk.
Fru Lagerlöf and Mamselle Lovisa, seeing that all went well, composed themselves and began to look at and delight in the display. Fru Lagerlöf was pleased to find an old design in silver spoons, such as they once had in her parental home, and Mamselle Lovisa became quite as enraptured with a sugar bowl as she had been shortly before with the swansdown hat.
When they had finally seen enough and were saying good-bye, it seemed almost as if they were parting from old friends. The goldsmith, his wife, and all the clerks followed them out into the street. Passers-by must have thought they had made purchases amounting to thousands of kronor.
"I really must apologize," said Lieutenant Lagerlöf, putting out his hand in a final farewell.
"Don't think of it. Lieutenant!" answered the goldsmith.
"But we have put you to so much trouble," Fru Lagerlöf interpolated in a deprecating tone.
"We have had a most enjoyable hour," the goldsmith assured her, "so don't be uneasy about us! One has to do something for one's own pleasure, now and then, though one does stand in a shop."
As the Lieutenant continued his stroll up Östra Hamngatan his hat was pushed farther back on his head than usual. He flourished his cane as he stepped along, proud of his adventure.
Fru Lagerlöf said in a low voice to Mamselle Lovisa: "I can't tell you how anxious I was; I thought we would surely be thrown out."
"It would never have done for any one but Gustaf," replied Mamselle Lovisa, "but no one can resist him."