also a Gymnasium for Equilibrists and a Conservatorium for Singing and
Music, Dancing and Deportment. Nor did there seem to be a scarcity of
pawnbrokers and dealers in second-hand goods. How had Ellen drifted into
this strange atmosphere of perfumes and old clothes and foreign
countries? Behind the windows in the low rooms he saw wonderful dresses
thrown over chair-backs--burnouses and red fezes; and a little dark
figure with a long pigtail and bare feet in yellow slippers, glided
noiselessly past him in the old-fashioned, palatial doorway of No. 20.

He mounted the stairs with a beating heart. The steps were worn and
groaned ominously when trodden on. The door of the flat stood ajar, and
he heard the sound of sweeping in the front room, while farther in a
child was talking to itself or its doll. He had to stand a little while
on the landing to take breath and to regain his composure.

Ellen was sweeping under the sofa with quick movements. She rose and
gazed at him in bewilderment; the broom fell from her hand and she
swayed to and fro. Pelle caught her, and she leaned inert and helpless
against him, and remained thus for a considerable time, pale and with
closed eyes. When at last he turned her inanimate face toward him and
kissed, it, she burst into tears.

He spoke gently and reassuringly to her as to a child. She kept her eyes
closed, as she had always done when anything overwhelmed her. She lay
back on his arm, and he felt her body tremble at the sound of his voice.
Her tears seemed to soften her, and from the yielding of her body now he
could see how stiffly she must have held herself, and was filled with
joy. It had all been for his sake, and with a tremendous effort of her
will she had defied fate until he came. She now placed it all at his
feet and lay prostrate. How tired she must be! But now she and the