after a long drink, glanced lurkingly at me over the lid of his tankard, and then sucked the beer from his moustache in a very contented way, as if he was saying to himself: "Oho, my friend, you put your foot into it that time! So you have already been talking about the possibilities!"
"Serious! Oh, no doubt of that."
"It is as much as to say that—that we both—in short, that there was nothing for you to do," I brutally broke through the difficulty, and looked at him fiercely.
"It quite depends, it quite depends, sir! Your reasoning does not hold good.… At all events, I quite see what leads you astray. Of course you look upon the expression 'marriage of convenience' as something depreciatory, and forget that I do not share this particular Danish prejudice, nor even all cosmopolitan ones. On the contrary I consider, taken as a whole, that the so-called 'marriages of convenience' are those matches which have most chance of happiness, not forgetting that matrimony altogether is—I won't say a curse—but an anomaly.… In this case, however, a matrimony of interest is, as we have already agreed, out of the question; here is supposed to be, forgive me, passion, enthusiasm, love—whatever you like to call it. Please do not misunderstand me! I do not doubt that, as far as you are concerned, it exists, and I will go further: I will grant you that Minna also feels real affection for you, even—I don't mind saying—is in love with you; only, the question is, of what description is this love?"
"Is it not the most natural thing to leave it to her to decide this question?"
"What are you dreaming of! She is quite incapable of doing that. I am convinced that a certain impatience
