Mårbacka/Part 4, Chapter 4
When Lieutenant Lagerlöf and his little daughters walked in the garden or out in the fields they often talked of what they would do if the King came to Mårbacka.
In those days the King used to drive through Värmland several times a year on his way to and from Norway, and he had to stop somewhere for refreshment and rest. Most frequently he stayed over in Karlstad, at the Governor's house, and it was also his wont to honour with a royal visit the great manors which lay along his route, and where they could conveniently entertain him.
Of course there was not the least likelihood that the King would come to a little unknown place like Mårbacka, which, to boot, lay far from the great highway. But that did not trouble the Lieutenant and his little girls. It would not have been such fun perhaps to talk about this had there been any chance of the King's really coming. Now it was only a pleasure to build in fancy a triumphal arch for His Majesty, and strew flowers in his way as he drove up. The little girls wondered if they should dress in white when the King came and the Lieutenant generously promised them new white frocks made by the best sempstress in East Ämtervik for the grand occasion.
The Lieutenant and the children pictured to themselves how the King, when nearing Mårbacka, would suddenly shade his eyes with his hand so as to see better.
"What is that great white building over there in the meadow?" he would ask. "Have they two churches in this parish?"
"No, your Majesty," the Lieutenant would then reply (for of course he was to ride with the King), "that white building is not a church, it is my cow-barn."
Then the King would look at him in wide-eyed wonder, and say:
"By Jove! You must be a deucedly clever fellow, Eric Gustaf, to have built yourself a barn like that!"
How they were to house the King and all his retinue in the little one-story dwelling—that was an almost unsolvable problem. The Lieutenant had often talked of building another story, and they were all agreed that when that was finished it would be an easy matter to entertain the King. Even then they probably would be a bit cramped for space. The Lieutenant and his wife might have to spend the night in the hay-loft, and the children—well, they could sleep in the rabbit hutch.
Now that about the rabbit hutch tickled the little girls immensely. And they wondered what the King would say about the garden. Of course he would marvel to find away back here in the farming country a garden laid out in the true English manner. At that, the Lieutenant would immediately send word to the old gardener and hearten him with the good news that the King had praised his flower beds and gravel paths.
And then when the King was leaving Mårbacka he would present Fru Lagerlöf with a gold brooch and Mamselle Lovisa with a gold bracelet, and the old housekeeper would receive a large shawl-pin of silver. Before stepping into his carriage. His Majesty would shake hands with the Lieutenant, and say:
"Thanks and honour to you, Eric Gustaf Lagerlöf! It is but a modest bit of my realm that is in your keeping, but I see that you take good care of it."
Those words the Lieutenant would remember with joy as long as he lived. He and his children had right merry times on these little excursions into the land of make-believe. It was a pity, though, that the royal visit could not really and truly come about until the Lieutenant had built a second story.
Then, lo and behold, at the close of the eighteen-sixties, when the Lieutenant had finished with everything else, he was ready to start remodelling the house. The royal visit apart, they were rather closely housed in the old one-story dwelling. The Lieutenant had already made some alterations. Eight or ten years back he had cut out larger window openings and had done away with the small-paned sashes. He had also put up new tile-stoves, papered the walls of the parlour and living room, and built a large veranda in place of the old porch.
Now there were to be still further improvements. The whole roof was to be torn off, the trusses raised, and the timber walls heightened. The year before he had had a couple of good carpenters at work on the place preparing the new roof trusses, so that the roof could be raised and covered as quickly as possible. The workmen had but just finished the trusses when the Lieutenant got word that his father-in-law had passed away. This was a sad loss and a heavy blow as well. The Lieutenant had lost his main prop and stay. Hereafter he would have no one but himself to depend on. Now out of his estate he must pay all contracted debts. His sons were then nearly grown and must soon be sent to the University of Upsala; therefore he thought it best to postpone the building work for a year or so.
But what one puts off is likely to be left undone. Fresh obstacles continually loomed in the way of this work. One year the Lieutenant was ill, and the next he had to help a brother-in-law who had once been well-to-do but must now have a yearly stipend. While the Lieutenant had been labouring to build up his property the years had passed without his noting them. He was now a man of fifty, and the old daring spirit of enterprise had perhaps slipped away from him.
It was with no light heart he relinquished his cherished plan of rebuilding the house. That was to have been his crowning work. All his life he had dreamed of erecting a fine manor-house on his beloved Mårbacka.
The great piles of timber and the finished roof trusses lay in the backyard for many years. Whenever the Lieutenant walked past them he turned his head away; he could not bear to look at them. His little daughters had been so very happy when he started on the roof trusses, and not altogether on account of the "royal visit." It was perhaps of more importance to them that they should have a real salon to dance in, and that the house should have two stories, and be as grand as Iron-Master Wallroth's Gårdsjö or Engineer Noreen's country seat. They grew uneasy over the delay, year after year, and one of the girls finally mustered the courage to ask her father when he was going to put up those roof trusses.
"I'm afraid never, my child!" When he said this his face twitched and there was a strange catch in his voice. Then, quickly recovering himself, he added, banteringly:
"But it doesn't matter now, my girl. They are building a railway to Norway, and hereafter the King won't come asking for a night's lodging, either at Mårbacka or any other manor in Värmland."