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Chapter 1—Introduction to Accounting Information Systems

TRUE/FALSE

1. The three themes of the text are operating systems, e-business, and internal control.

ANS: F PTS: 1

2. It is critical for accountants to understand enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

ANS: T PTS: 1

3. Information systems reliability and electronic commerce have been identified by the AICPA as
potential assurance services.

ANS: T PTS: 1

4. E-business is the application of electronic networks to undertake business processes among the
functional areas in an organization.

ANS: F PTS: 1

5. The role of the accountant has evolved to include non-financial information and information
technology.

ANS: T PTS: 1

6. Enterprise systems integrate an organization's business processes and information from all of an
organization's functional areas.

ANS: T PTS: 1

7. An information system consists of an integrated set of computer-based and manual components

established to provide information to users.

ANS: T PTS: 1

8. Internal control is a process that provides complete assurance that the organization is meeting its
objectives, such as efficiency and effectiveness of operations and reliable reporting.

ANS: F PTS: 1
 9. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has dramatically changed the daily work of financial accountants and
auditors.

ANS: T PTS: 1

10. According to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, management must identify, document, and evaluate
significant internal controls.

ANS: T PTS: 1

11. According to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 5, management
must audit and report on auditors' assertions about the organizations' systems of internal controls.

ANS: F PTS: 1

12. According to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's Section 409, material changes in the organization's financial
condition must be disclosed to the public on a rapid and current basis.

ANS: T PTS: 1

13. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act's Section 404 creates changes in both how companies document and evaluate
internal control and how auditors audit and report on internal control.

ANS: T PTS: 1

14. Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance is a major line of business for the biggest accounting firms.

ANS: T PTS: 1

15. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 applies to publicly traded companies and not-for-profit entities.

ANS: F PTS: 1

16. Historically the purpose of an accounting information system is to collect, process, and report financial
aspects of business events.

ANS: T PTS: 1

17. The MIS is a subsystem of the AIS.

ANS: F PTS: 1

18. Sales/marketing information system is traditionally part of the AIS.

ANS: F PTS: 1

19. Billing/accounts receivable is traditionally part of the AIS.

ANS: T PTS: 1

20. Production and personnel are part of the operations process.

ANS: T PTS: 1
21. The management process includes marketing and sales.

ANS: F PTS: 1

22. Information that is capable of making a difference in a decision-making situation, by reducing

uncertainty or increasing knowledge for that particular decision, has the quality of relevance.

ANS: T PTS: 1

23. Information about a customer's credit history that is received after the decision to grant additional
credit lacks completeness.

ANS: F PTS: 1

24. The consistency principle is violated when a firm uses straight-line depreciation one year and changes
to declining balance depreciation the next year.

ANS: T PTS: 1

25. Accuracy is the correspondence or agreement between the information and the actual events or objects
that the information represents.

ANS: T PTS: 1

26. Information has understandability when it is capable of making a difference in a decision-making

situation..

ANS: F PTS: 1

27. The most important information for tactical management involves information about the organization's
environment.

ANS: F PTS: 1

28. Deciding how much credit to grant to a customer is a structured decision.

ANS: T PTS: 1

29. Strategic management requires more detailed information than operations management.

ANS: F PTS: 1

30. The three steps in decision making take place in the sequence of (1) intelligence (2) design (3) choice.

ANS: T PTS: 1

31. Strategic managers use more information from outside the organization than do operations managers.

ANS: T PTS: 1

32. Operations management requires information that is more accurate and timely than strategic
management.

ANS: T PTS: 1
 33. What controls will be necessary is a question that an accountant answers in the design of the AIS.

ANS: T PTS: 1

34. As a designer of an AIS the accountant will test a new system's controls.

ANS: F PTS: 1

35. As a user of an AIS an accountant may be called upon to participate in the AIS design process.

ANS: T PTS: 1

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. The three themes of the text book include all of the following except:
a. enterprise systems
b. risk assessment
c. e-business
d. internal control
ANS: B PTS: 1

2. Efficiency and effectiveness of operations are goals of:

a. enterprise systems
b. risk assessment
c. e-business
d. internal control
ANS: D PTS: 1

3. A set of interdependent elements that together accomplish specific objectives is a

a. system
b. subsystem
c. database
d. accounting information system
ANS: A PTS: 1

4. A system can be further divided into

a. input data
b. subsystems
c. databases
d. enterprise systems
ANS: B PTS: 1

5. A system that consists of an integrated set of computer-based and manual components established to
collect, store, and manage data and to provide output information to users is a(n)
a. output
b. ERP
c. database
d. information system
ANS: D PTS: 1
 6. An information system:
a. is composed of only the computer-based information resources of an organization
b. may consist of both computer-based and manual components
c. is different from a data processing system because it uses computers
d. is not generally used for transaction processing
ANS: B PTS: 1

7. The AICPA has identified all but which of the following as assurance services?
a. consulting
b. information systems reliability
c. electronic commerce
d. All of these are assurance services identified by the AICPA.
ANS: A PTS: 1

8. The sequence of components in the functional model of an information system is

a. Output, Input, Processing, Users
b. Input, Processing, Output, Users
c. Processing, Input, Users, Output
d. Users, Processing, Input, Output
ANS: B PTS: 1

9. Historically, the relationship between an information system and an accounting information system has
been:
a. the AIS is a part of the IS
b. the IS is a part of the AIS
c. the IS and the AIS are one in the same
d. the IS and AIS are unrelated
ANS: A PTS: 1

10. The text takes the following view of the relationship between an IS and an AIS:
a. the AIS is part of the IS
b. the IS is part of the AIS
c. the IS and the AIS are one in the same
d. the AIS is the primary system and the IS the subsystem
ANS: C PTS: 1

11. A man-made system that generally consists of an integrated set of computer-based components and
manual components established to collect, store, and manage data and to provide output information to
users.
a. information system
b. output system
c. business event system
d. database system
ANS: A PTS: 1

12. According to the ____, one of the responsibilities of accountants is to assess financial operations and
make best-practices recommendations to management.
a. AICPA
b. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
 c. Occupational Outlook Handbook
d. Accounting Information System
ANS: C PTS: 1

13. A man-made system consisting of people, equipment, organization, policies and procedures with the
objective of accomplishing the work of the organization.
a. operations process
b. management process
c. information process
d. planning process
ANS: A PTS: 1

14. A man-made system consisting of people, authority, organization, policies and procedures whose
objective is to accomplish the work of planning and controlling the operations of the organization.
a. operations process
b. management process
c. information process
d. planning process
ANS: B PTS: 1

15. The three logical components of a business process include all of the following except:
a. management process
b. operations process
c. information process
d. organization process
ANS: D PTS: 1

16. Which of the following statements is true?

a. The information process facilitates operations by maintaining data such as inventory and
customer data.
b. The information process provides the means by which management monitors the
operations process.
c. Management designs the operations and information processes.
d. All of the statements are true.
ANS: D PTS: 1

17. Which of the following statements is false?

a. Management designs the operations and information processes and establishes these
processes with people, equipment, and policies.
b. Information process users include operations personnel, management, and people outside
the organization.
c. Operations related and accounting related processes are designed by those external to the
organization.
d. None of the statements are false.
ANS: C PTS: 1

18. ____ is (are) data presented in a form that is useful to decision makers.
a. Activities
b. Information
c. Objectives
 d. Goals
ANS: B PTS: 1

19. ____ are facts and figures in raw form.

a. Data
b. Information
c. Objectives
d. Goals
ANS: A PTS: 1

20. All of the following are components of relevance except:

a. feedback value
b. predictive value
c. verifiability
d. timeliness
ANS: C PTS: 1

21. All of the following are components of reliability except:

a. validity
b. accuracy
c. verifiability
d. feedback value
ANS: D PTS: 1

22. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 dramatically changed the daily work of financial accountants and
auditors because it
a. expanded the scope of the audit beyond financial information
b. required that organizations work with their auditors to design systems of internal control
c. required that external auditors report on the effectiveness of an organizations system of
internal control
d. expanded the opportunities for auditors to engage in consulting activities with their audit
clients
ANS: C PTS: 1

23. Internal control is a process designed to provide absolute assurance regarding achieving objectives in
which of the following?
a. efficiency and effectiveness of operations
b. reliability of reporting
c. compliance with applicable laws and regulations
d. none of the above
ANS: D PTS: 1

24. Which of the following is NOT a business processes element?

a. Business operations
b. Events processing
c. Management decision making
d. Technology
ANS: D PTS: 1
25. ____ improves the decision maker's capacity to predict, confirm, or correct earlier expectations
a. Understandability
b. Feedback value
c. Neutrality
d. Comparability
ANS: B PTS: 1

26. The information quality that enables users to identify similarities and differences in two pieces of
information is
a. Understandability
b. Predictive value
c. Neutrality
d. Comparability
ANS: D PTS: 1

27. The correspondence or agreement between the information and the actual events or objects that the
information represents is known as
a. accuracy
b. completeness
c. neutrality
d. comparability
ANS: A PTS: 1

28. The degree to which information includes data about every relevant object or event necessary to make
a decision is
a. accuracy
b. completeness
c. neutrality
d. comparability
ANS: B PTS: 1

29. The ability of more than one individual to come to the same measurement is known as
a. accuracy
b. completeness
c. verifiability
d. comparability
ANS: C PTS: 1

30. If information arrives too late to impact a decision then there is a problem with
a. timeliness
b. relevance
c. completeness
d. neutrality
ANS: A PTS: 1

31. Which of the following is NOT one of the three steps in decision making as described in the text
a. action
b. intelligence
c. design
 d. choice
ANS: A PTS: 1

32. Regarding management problem structure and information requirements, which of the following
represents the vertical information flows from lowest to highest?
a. strategic management, tactical management, operations management, operations and
business event processing
b. operations and business event processing, strategic management, tactical management,
operations management
c. tactical management, operations management, strategic management, operations and
business event processing
d. operations and business event processing, operations management, tactical management,
strategic management
ANS: D PTS: 1

33. Structured decision

a. are usually tactical management decisions
b. require the use of an organization’s AIS system.
c. are relatively routine and repetitive
d. All of the above
ANS: C PTS: 1

34. Which of the following is an unstructured decision?

a. how much inventory to reorder
b. how fast an assembly line should operate
c. when scheduled maintenance should be performed
d. which research and development projects should be undertaken
ANS: D PTS: 1

35. At which level of the organization are decisions most unstructured?

a. operations and business event processing level
b. strategic management level
c. operations management level
d. tactical management level
ANS: B PTS: 1

36. ____ requires information to assess the environment and to project future events and conditions.
a. Strategic management
b. Tactical management
c. Operations management
d. Operations and business event processing
ANS: A PTS: 1

37. The ____ manager may be more concerned with accuracy than with timeliness.
a. strategic
b. tactical
c. operations
d. All of the above.
ANS: A PTS: 1
38. The central repository for all the data related to the enterprise's business activities and resources.
a. information system
b. management information system
c. enterprise database
d. strategic planning
ANS: C PTS: 1

39. E-business does not include

a. business processes between individuals and organizations
b. electronic networks
c. ERP systems
d. interaction between back-office and front-office processes
ANS: C PTS: 1

40. Enterprise systems

a. integrate back-office and front-office processes
b. can include ERP systems
c. have become fairly easy to implement
d. facilitate business processes between organizations
ANS: B PTS: 1

41. Which of the following statements is false?

a. Strategic planning is relatively unstructured.
b. Strategic planning uses much information from outside the firm.
c. Tactical management focuses on relevant operations units and uses some external
information.
d. Tactical management uses the most detailed and accurate information.
ANS: D PTS: 1

42. Generally, which of the following is NOT one of the three roles an accountant typically fills in relation
to the AIS?
a. designer
b. programmer
c. user
d. auditor
ANS: B PTS: 1

43. Which of the following questions might the accountant answer in the design of the AIS?
a. what will be recorded
b. what controls are necessary
c. what reports will be produced
d. all of the above
ANS: D PTS: 1

44. Which of the following is an element of the operations process?

a. production
b. planning
c. controlling
d. decision making
 ANS: A PTS: 1

45. Which of the following is one of the three most prominent management activities?
a. production
b. finance
c. marketing
d. planning
ANS: D PTS: 1

46. Accounting is an activity of the

a. management process
b. operations process
c. information process
d. organization process
ANS: B PTS: 1

47. Decision-making is an activity of the

a. management process
b. operations process
c. information process
d. organization process
ANS: A PTS: 1

COMPLETION

1. ______________________________, ______________________________, and

______________________________ are the three themes of the textbook.

ANS:
Enterprise systems, e-business, internal control
Enterprise systems, internal control, e-business
Internal control, enterprise systems, e-business
Internal control, e-business, enterprise systems
E-business, enterprise systems, internal control
E-business, internal control, enterprise systems

PTS: 1

2. The ______________________________ Act of 2002 changed the daily work of financial

accountants, auditors, and others.

ANS: Sarbanes-Oxley

PTS: 1

3. A(n) ______________________________ is a set of independent elements that together accomplish

specific objectives.

ANS: system
 PTS: 1

4. A system’s __________ ____________ depends on its type – natural, biological, or man-made – and
on the particular system.

ANS: central objectives

PTS: 1

5. Software packages that can be used for the core systems necessary to support enterprise systems are
called ______________________________.

ANS:
enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
enterprise resource planning systems
ERP systems

PTS: 1

6. ______________________________ is the application of electronic networks (including the Internet)

to undertake business processes between individuals and organizations.

ANS: E-business

PTS: 1

7. ____________ _____________ is a process⎯effected by an entity's board of directors, management,

and other personnel⎯designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding achieving objectives in the
following categories: efficiency and effectiveness of operations, reliability of reporting, and
compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

ANS: Internal control

PTS: 1

8. The ____________ _________________ units of large and small public accounting firms have
accounted for a significant percentage of the firms’ business and were growing faster than the
accounting, auditing, and tax portions of their businesses.

ANS: business consulting

PTS: 1

9. Hiring employees, purchasing inventory and collecting cash from customers are all components of
_________ ______________.

ANS: business operations

PTS: 1

10. The three logical components of a business process are the _____________________ process, the
____________ process and the ____________process.
 ANS:
management, operations, information
management, information, operations
information, management, operations
information, operations, management
operations, information, management
operations, management, information,

PTS: 1

11. Historically, the accountant has performed a(n) ______________________________ function to

determine the reliability of financial information presented in printed financial statements.

ANS: attest

PTS: 1

12. A(n) ______________________________ system generally consists of both computerized and manual
components established to collect, store, and manage data and to provide output information to users.

ANS:
information
management information

PTS: 1

13. The ______________________________ is a man-made system consisting of the people, equipment,

organization, policies, and procedures whose objective is to accomplish the work of the organization.

ANS: operations process

PTS: 1

14. To present the results of their endeavors effectively, accountants must possess strong
______________________________.

ANS: oral and written communication skills

PTS: 1

15. ______________________________ decisions are those for which all three decision phases
(intelligence, design, and choice) are relatively routine or repetitive.

ANS: Structured

PTS: 1

16. A(n) ______________________________ is designed to collect, process, and report information

related to financial transactions.

ANS:
accounting information system (AIS)
accounting information system
AIS
 PTS: 1

17. Input, processing, ______________________________, and users are included in a functional model
of an information system.

ANS: output

PTS: 1

18. The highest level of management activity and the one with the broadest scope is
______________________________ management.

ANS: strategic

PTS: 1

19. In the management hierarchy, the level that lies between strategic management and operations
management is called ______________________________ management.

ANS: tactical

PTS: 1

20. Facts or figures in raw form are referred to as ______________________________.

ANS: data

PTS: 1

21. ______________________________ is an information quality that can be expanded into validity,

accuracy, and completeness..

ANS: Integrity

PTS: 1

22. The __________ of information must be evaluated in relation to the purpose to be served (decision
making).

ANS: effectiveness

PTS: 1

23. Information that is capable of making a difference in a decision of a user is said to possess the quality
of ______________________________.

ANS: relevance

PTS: 1

24. Information that is available before it loses its capacity to influence a user's decision possesses the
quality of ______________________________.
 ANS: timeliness

PTS: 1

25. Information that improves a decision makers ability to predict, confirm, or correct earlier expectations
has the quality known as ______________ ________________.

ANS:
feedback value
predictive value

PTS: 1

26. The quality of information when there is a high degree of consensus about the information among
independent measurers using the same measurement methods is referred to as
______________________________.

ANS: verifiability

PTS: 1

27. Information that is objective is said to possess ______________________________.

ANS:
neutrality
freedom from bias

PTS: 1

28. The quality of information that enables users to identify similarities and differences in two pieces of
information is referred to as ______________________________.

ANS: comparability

PTS: 1

29. A ________ is a tool designed to help you analyze a situation and relate processes to desired results.

ANS: matrix

PTS: 1

30. Section ______________________________ of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires auditors to

report on about the effectiveness of the organizations' systems of internal control.

ANS: 404

PTS: 1

31. Section ______________________________ of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires management

to identify, document and evaluate significant internal controls.

ANS: 404
 PTS: 1

32. Section ______________________________ of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires disclosure to

the public on a rapid and current basis of material changes in an organization's financial condition.

ANS: 409

PTS: 1

33. The ______________ ________________ is a man-made system consisting of the people, authority,
organization, policies, and procedures whose objective is to plan and control the operations of the
organization

ANS: management process

PTS: 1

34. ______________________________ is data presented in a form that is useful in a decision-making

activity.

ANS: Information

PTS: 1

35. Information about actual authorized events and objects has ______________________________.

ANS: validity

PTS: 1

36. ______________________________ is the correspondence or agreement between the information and

the actual events or objects that the information represents.

ANS: Accuracy

PTS: 1

37. ______________________________ is the degree to which information includes data about every
relevant object or event necessary to make a decision and includes that information only once.

ANS: completeness

PTS: 1

ESSAY

1. Describe the activities performed and information used by each of the following levels in the
management structure:
a. Strategic management
b. Tactical management
c. Operations management

ANS:
 Suggested answer:
a. Strategic management requires information to assess the environment and to project
future events and conditions. Such information is even more summarized, broader in
scope, and comes from outside the organization more than does the information used by
tactical management. To be useful to division managers, chief financial officers (CFOs),
and chief executive officers (CEOs), information must relate to longer time periods, be
sufficiently broad in scope, and be summarized to provide a means for judging the long-
term effectiveness of management policies. External financial statements, annual sales
reports, and division income statements are but a few examples of strategic-level
information.

b. Tactical management requires information that focuses on relevant operational units and
is more summarized, broader in scope, and need not be as accurate as the information
used by operations management. Some external information may be required. For
example, a warehousing and distribution manager might want information about the
timeliness of shipments each month.

c. Information useful to operations management personnel is often an aggregate of data

related to several business events. For example, a report summarizing shipments made
each day might be useful to the shipping manager. At the operations management level,
supervisors use this type of information to monitor the daily functioning of their
operating units. The vertical information useful to operations management is a
summarized and tailored version of the information that flows horizontally.

PTS: 1

2. Describe the three roles that an accountant can play in the AIS?

ANS:
The three roles the accountant can play in the AIS are designer, user and auditor.

The accountant is a designer of the AIS who brings knowledge of accounting principles, auditing
principles, information systems techniques, and systems development methods.

The accountant is also a user of the AIS and will provide feedback on how well the system works, how
easy or difficult it is to use, and on what items can be changed or improved from a user perspective.
The accountant performs a number of functions within the organization such as controller, treasurer,
financial analyst, all of which are users of the AIS. Accountants, as users of the system can also be
effective in the design process because of the functions they perform.

As internal and external auditors, accountants audit the AIS or provide assurance services about
internal control or other items discussed in the chapter. Auditors are interested in the reliability of
accounting data and of the reports produced by the system. They may test the system's controls, assess
the system's efficiency and effectiveness, and participate in the system design process. The auditor
must possess knowledge of internal controls, systems development techniques, technology and the
design and operation of the AIS to be effective.

PTS: 1

3. Discuss five of the ten items that comprise the components of the study of AIS in this text.

ANS:
The 10 components of the study of AIS are depicted in Figure 1.1. A detailed description of these
components may be found in the chapter. Here is a brief summary of the detailed descriptions:
• Technology. Technological developments have a profound effect on information
systems; enterprise systems, ERP systems, e-business, databases, and intelligent systems
are but a few examples. Technology provides the foundation on which AIS and business
operations rest, and knowledge of technology is critically important to your
understanding of the AIS discipline.
• Databases. To perform analysis, to prepare information for management decision
making, and to audit a firm's financial records, an accountant must be able to access and
use data from public and private databases.
• Reporting. To design reports generated by an information system, the accountant must
know what outputs are required or are desirable. These reports often support management
decisions as well as fulfill certain reporting obligations. GAAP-based financial
statements are but one example of reporting that will be considered in our study of AIS.
• Control. Traditionally, accountants have been experts on controlling business processes.
As a practicing accountant, you will probably spend much of your time providing such
expertise. You must develop an understanding of control that is specific to the situation at
hand, yet is adaptable for the future.
• Business operations. Organizations engage in activities or operations, such as hiring
employees, purchasing inventory, and collecting cash from customers. AIS operates in
concert with these business operations. Many AIS inputs are prepared by operating
departments⎯the action or work centers of the organization⎯and many AIS outputs are
used to manage these operations. Therefore, we must analyze and manage an AIS in light
of the work being performed by the organization.
• Events processing. As organizations undertake their business operations, events, such as
sales and purchases, occur. Data about these events must be captured and recorded to
mirror and monitor the business operations. The events have operational and AIS aspects
(i.e., some do not have a direct accounting impact, and some are accounting
"transactions" that result in entries in the general ledger). To design and use the AIS, an
accountant must know what event data are processed and how they are processed.
• Management decision making. The information used for a decision must be tailored to
the type of decision under consideration. Furthermore, the information is more useful if it
recognizes the personal management styles and preferences of the decision maker.
• Systems development and operation. The information systems that process business
events and provide information for management decision making must be designed,
implemented, and effectively operated. An accountant often participates in systems
development projects as a user or business process owner contributing requests for
certain functions or an auditor advancing controls for the new system. Choosing the data
for a report, designing that report, and configuring an enterprise system are examples of
systems development tasks that can be accomplished by an accountant.
• Communications. To present the results of their endeavors effectively, accountants must
possess strong oral and written communication skills. Throughout this course, you will be
required to evaluate alternatives, to choose a solution, and to defend your choice.
Technical knowledge alone won't be enough for the last task.
• Accounting and auditing principles. To design and operate the accounting system, an
accountant must know the proper accounting procedures and must understand the audits
to which the accounting information will be subjected.

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIR HAVEN AND

FOUL STRAND ***
FAIR HAVEN
AND
FOUL STRAND
BY
 AUGUST STRINDBERG
NEW YORK

MCBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY

MCMXIV

CONTENTS

FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND

THE DOCTOR'S FIRST STORY
THE DOCTOR'S SECOND STORY
HERR BENGT'S WIFE

FAIR HAVEN AND FOUL STRAND

The quarantine doctor was a man of five-and-sixty, well-preserved,
short, slim and elastic, with a military bearing which recalled the fact
that he had served in the Army Medical Corps. From birth he
belonged to the eccentrics who feel uncomfortable in life and are
never at home in it. Born in a mining district, of well-to-do but stern
parents, he had no pleasant recollections of his childhood. His father
and mother never spoke kindly, even when there was occasion to do
so, but always harshly, with or without cause. His mother was one of
those strange characters who get angry about nothing. Her anger
arose without visible cause, so that her son sometimes thought she
was not right in her head, and sometimes that she was deaf and
could not hear properly, for occasionally her response to an act of
kindness was a box on the ears. Therefore the boy became
mistrustful towards people in general, for the only natural bond
which should have united him to humanity with tenderness, was
broken, and everything in life assumed a hostile appearance.
Accordingly, though he did not show it, he was always in a posture
of defence.
At school he had friends, but since he did not know how sincerely he
wished them well, he became submissive, and made all kinds of
concessions in order to preserve his faith in real friendship. By so
doing he let his friends encroach so much that they oppressed him
and began to tyrannise over him. When matters came to this point,
he went his own way without giving any explanations. But he soon
found a new friend with whom the same story was repeated from
beginning to end. The result was that later in life he only sought for
acquaintances, and grew accustomed to rely only upon himself.
When he was confirmed, and felt mature and responsible through
being declared ecclesiastically of age, an event happened which
proved a turning-point in his life. He came home too late for a meal
and his mother received him with a shower of blows from a stick.
Without thinking, the young man raised his hand, and gave her a
box on the ear. For a moment mother and son confronted each
other, he expecting the roof to fall in or that he would be struck
dead in some miraculous way. But nothing happened. His mother
went out as though nothing had occurred, and behaved afterwards
as though nothing unusual had taken place between them.
Later on in life when this affair recurred to his memory, he wondered
what must have passed through her mind. She had cast one look to
the ceiling as though she sought there for something—an invisible
hand perhaps, or had she resigned herself to it, because she had at
last seen that it was a well-deserved retribution, and therefore not
called him to account? It was strange, that in spite of desperate
efforts to produce pangs of conscience, he never felt any self-
reproach on the subject. It seemed to have happened without his
will, and as though it must happen.
Nevertheless, it marked a boundary-line in his life. The cord was cut
and he fell out in life alone, away from his mother and domesticity.
He felt as though he had been born without father and mother. Both
seemed to him strangers whom he would have found it most natural
to call Mr and Mrs So-and-so. At the University he at once noticed
the difference between his lot and that of his companions. They had
parents, brothers, and sisters; there was an order and succession in
their life. They had relations to their fellow-men and obeyed secret
social laws. They felt instinctively that he did not belong to their fold.
When as a young doctor he acted on behalf of an army medical
officer for some time, he felt at once that he was not in his proper
place, and so did the officers. The silent resistance which he offered
from the first to their imperiousness and arbitrary ways marked him
out as a dissatisfied critic, and he was left to himself.
In the hospital it was the same. Here he perceived at once the
fateful predestination of social election, those who were called and
those who were not called. It seemed as though the authorities
could discern by scent those who were congenial to them. And so it
was everywhere. He started a practice as a ladies' doctor, but had no
luck, for he demanded straightforward answers to his questions, and
those he never received. Then he became impatient, and was
considered brutal. He became a Government sanitary officer in a
remote part of the country, and since he was now independent of his
patients' favour, he troubled himself still less about pleasing them.
Presently he was transferred to the quarantine service, and was
finally stationed at Skamsund.
When he had come here, now seventeen years ago, he at once
began to be at variance with the pilots, who, as the only authorities
on the island, indulged themselves in many acts of arbitrariness
towards the inhabitants. The quarantine doctor loved peace and
quietness like other men, but he had early learnt that warfare is
necessary; and that it is no use simply to be passive as regards
one's rights, but that one must defend them every day and every
hour of the day. Since he was a new-comer they tried to curtail his
authority and deprive him of his small privileges. The chief pilot had
a prescriptive right to half the land, but the quarantine doctor had in
his bay a small promontory where the pilots used to moor their
private boats and store their fishing implements. The doctor first
ascertained his legal rights in the matter, and when he found out
that he had the sole right of using the promontory and that the
pilots could store their fishing-tackle elsewhere, he went to the chief
pilot and gave them a friendly notice to quit. When he saw that
mere politeness was of no avail, he took stronger measures, had the
place cleared and fenced off by his servants, turned it into a garden,
and erected a simple pavilion in it. The pilots hailed petitions on the
Government, but the matter was decided in his favour. The result
was a lifelong enmity between him and the pilots. The quarantine
doctor was shut in on his promontory and himself placed in
quarantine. There he had now remained for seventeen years, but
not in peace, for there was always strife. Either his dog fought with
the pilots' dog, or their fowls came into his garden, or they ran their
boats ashore on each other's ground. Thus he was kept in a
continual state of anger and excitement, and even if there ever was
quiet for a moment outside the house, inside there was the
housekeeper. They had quarrelled for seventeen years, and once
every week she had packed her things in order to go. She was a
tyrant and insisted that her master should have sugar in all his
sauces, even with fresh cod. During all the seventeen years she had
not learnt how to boil an egg but wished the doctor to learn to eat
half-raw eggs, which he hated. Sometimes he got tired of
quarrelling, and then everything went on in Kristin's old way. He
would eat raw potatoes, stale bread, sour cream and such-like for a
whole week and admire himself as a Socrates; then his self-respect
awoke and he began to storm again. He had to storm in order to get
the salt-cellar placed on the table, to get the doors shut, to get the
lamps filled with oil. The lamp-chimneys and wicks he had to clean
himself, for that she could not learn.
"You are a cow, Kristin! You are a wretch who cannot value
kindness. Do you like me to storm? Do you know that I abominate
myself when I am obliged to get so excited. You make me bad, and
you are a poisonous worm. I wish you had never been born, and lay
in the depths of the earth. You are not a human being for you
cannot learn; you are a cow, that you are! You will go? Yes, go to
the deuce, where you came from!"
But Kristin never went. Once indeed she got as far as the steamer
bridge, but turned round and entered the wood, whence the doctor
had to fetch her home.
The doctor's only acquaintance was the postmaster at Fagervik, an
old comrade of his student days, who came over every Saturday
evening. Then the two drank and gossiped till past midnight and the
postmaster remained till Sunday morning. They certainly did not look
at life and their fellow-men from the same point of view, for the
postmaster was a decided member of the Left Party, and the doctor
was a sceptic, but their talk suited each other so well, that their
conversation was like a part-song, or piece of music, for two voices,
in which the voices, although varying, yet formed a harmony. The
doctor, with his wider, mental outlook, sometimes expressed
disapproval of his companion's sentiments somewhat as follows:
"You party-men are like one-eyed cats. Some see only with the left
eye, others with the right, and therefore you can never see
stereoscopically, but always flat and one-sidedly."
They were both great newspaper readers and followed the course of
all questions with eagerness. The most burning question, however,
was the religious one, for the political ones were settled by votes in
the Reichstag and came to an end, but the religious questions never
ended. The postmaster hated pietists and temperance advocates.
"Why the deuce do you hate the pietists?" the doctor would say.
"What harm have they done you? Let them enjoy themselves; it
doesn't affect me."
"They are all hypocrites," said the postmaster dogmatically.
"No," answered the doctor, "you cannot judge, for you have never
been a pietist, but I have, and I was—deuce take me—no hypocrite.
But I don't do it again. That is to say—one never knows, for it comes
over one, or does not—it all depends on——"
"On what?"
"Hard to say. Pietism, for the rest, is a kind of European Buddhism.
Both regard the world as an unclean place of punishment for the
soul. Therefore they seek to counteract material influences, and in
that they are not so wrong. That they do not succeed is obvious, but
the struggle itself deserves respect. Their apparent hypocrisy results
from the fact that they do not reach the goal they aim at, and their
life always halts behind their teaching. That the priests of the church
hate them is clear, for our married dairy farmers, card players and
good diners do not love these apostles who show their
unnecessariness and their defects. You know our clergy out there on
the islands; I need not gossip about them, for you know. There you
have the hypocrites, especially among the unfortunates, who after
going through their examination have lost faith in all doctrines."
"Yes, but the pietists are enemies to culture."
"No, I don't find that. When I came to this island it was inhabited by
three hundred besotted beasts who led the life of devils. And now—
you see for yourself. They are not lovable nor lively, but they are, at
any rate, quiet, so that one can sleep at night; and they don't fight,
so that one can walk about the island without fear for one's life and
limbs. In a word, the simplest blessings of civilisation were the
distinct result of the erection of the prayer-house."
"The prayer-house which you never enter!"
"No, I don't belong to that fold. But have you ever been there?"
"I? No!"
"You should hear them once at any rate."
"Why?"
"You daren't!"
"Daren't! Is it dangerous?"
"So they say!"
"Not for me."
"Shall we wager a barrel of punch?"
The postmaster reflected an instant, not so much on the punch as
on the doctor's suspecting him of cowardice.
"Done! I will go there on Friday. And you can carry the punch home
in a boat, if you see anything go wrong with me."
The day came and the postmaster ate his dinner with the doctor,
before he took his way, as agreed, to the prayer-house. He had told
no one of his intention, partly because he feared that the preacher
might aim at him, partly because he did not wish to get the
reputation of being a pietist. After dinner he borrowed a box of snuff
to keep himself awake, in spite of the doctor's assurance that he
would not have any chance of sleeping. And so he went.
The doctor walked about his garden waiting for the result of the
experiment to which many a stronger man than the postmaster had
succumbed. He waited for an hour and a half; he waited two hours;
he waited three. Then at last he saw the congregation coming out—
a sign that it was over. But the postmaster did not appear. The
doctor became uneasy. Another hour passed, and at last he saw his
friend coming out of the wood. He came with a somewhat artificial
liveliness and there was something forced in the springiness of his
gait. When he saw the doctor, he made a slight wriggling movement
with his legs, and shrugged his shoulders as though his clothes were
too tight for him.
"Well?" asked the doctor. "It was tedious, wasn't it?"
"Yes," was the only answer.
They went down to the pavilion and took their seats opposite each
other, although the postmaster was shy of showing his face, into
which a new expression had come.
"Give me a pinch of snuff," said the doctor slyly.
The postmaster drew out the snuff-box, which had been untouched.
"You did not sleep?" resumed the doctor.
The postmaster felt embarrassed.
"Well, old fellow, you are not cheerful! What is the matter? Stop a
minute!" The doctor indicated with his forefinger the space between
his friend's eyes and nose as though he wished to show him
something, "I believe ... you have been crying!"
"Nonsense!" answered the postmaster, and straightened himself up.
"But, at any rate, you know I am not easily befooled, but as I said
that fellow is a wizard."
"Tell us, tell us! Fancy your believing in wizards!"
"Yes, it was so strange." He paused for a while and continued:
"Can you imagine it? He preached, as was to be expected, especially
to me. And in the middle of his preaching he told me all the secrets
which, like everyone else, I have kept most jealously hidden from my
childhood's days and earlier. I felt that I reddened, and that the
whole congregation looked at me as though they knew it also, which
is quite impossible. They nodded, keeping time with his words and
looking at me simultaneously. Yes, they turned round on their seats.
Even regarded as witchcraft it was——"
"Yes, yes, I know it, and therefore I take care. What it is I don't
know, but it is something which I keep at arm's length. And it is the
same with Swedenborg. I sat once in an ante-room waiting for
admission. Behind me stood a book-case from which a book
projected and prevented me from leaning my head back. I took the
book down and it was part of Swedenborg's 'Arcana Coelestia.' I
opened it at random and—can you imagine it? in two minutes a
subject which just then occupied my thoughts was explained to me
in such detail and with an almost alarming amount of expert
knowledge, that it was quite uncanny. In two minutes I was quite
clear regarding myself and my concerns."
"Well, tell us about it."
"No, I won't. You know yourself that the life we live in thought is
secret, and what we experience in secret.... Yes, we are not what we
seem."
"No." His friend broke in hastily. "No; our actions are very easy to
control, but our thoughts ... ugh!"
"And thoughts are the deeds of the mind, as I have read
somewhere. With our silent, evil thoughts we can infect others; we
can transfer our evil purposes to others who execute them. Do you
remember the case of the child murderess here ten years ago?"
"No, I was away then."
"She was a young children's nurse, innocent, fond of children, and
had always been kind, as was elicited in examination. During the
summer she was in the service of an actress up there in Fagervik. In
August she was arrested for child murder. I was present in court
when she was examined. She could not assign any reason for her
action. But the judge wished to find out the reason, since she had
no personal motive for it. The witnesses declared that she had loved
the child, and she admitted it. At her second examination she was
beside herself with remorse and horror at the terrible deed, but still
behaved as though she were not really guilty, although she assumed
the responsibility for the crime. At the third examination the judge
tried to help her, and put the question, 'How did the idea come to
you of murdering an innocent child whom you loved? Think
carefully!' The girl cast a look of despair round the court, but when
her eyes rested on the mother of the child, the actress, who was
present for the first time, she answered the judge simply and
naturally. 'I believe that my mistress wished it.' You should have
seen the woman's face as these words were uttered. It seemed to
me that her clothes dropped from her and she stood there exposed,
and for the first time I thought of the abysmal depths of the human
soul, over which a judge must walk with bandaged eyes, for he has
no right to punish us in our interior life of thought; there we punish
ourselves and that is what the pietists do."
"What you say is true enough, but I know also that my inner life is
sometimes higher and purer than my outward life."
"I grant it. I have also an idea of my better ego, which is the best I
know.... But tell me, what have you been doing for a whole hour in
the wood?"
"I was thinking."
"You are not going to be a pietist, I suppose," broke in the doctor as
he filled his glass.
"No, not I."
"But you no longer think the pietists are humbugs?"
To this the postmaster made no reply. But the drinking did not go
briskly that evening, and the conversation was on higher topics than
usual. Towards ten o'clock a terrible howling like that of wild beasts
came over the Sound. It was from the garden of the hotel in
Fagervik. Both the philosophers glanced in that direction.
"They are the crews of the cutters, of course," said the postmaster.
"They are certainly fighting too. Yes, Fagervik is going down because
of the rows at night. The holiday visitors run away for they cannot
sleep, and they have thought of closing the beer-shops." "And of
opening a prayer-house, perhaps?"
This question also remained unanswered, and they parted without
knowing exactly how they stood with each other.
Meanwhile the report spread in Fagervik that the postmaster had
been to the prayer-house, and when the next afternoon he found
himself in his little circle at the hotel with the custom-house officer
and the chief pilot, they greeted him with the important news:
"So! you have become a pietist!"
The postmaster parried the thrust with a jest, swore emphatically
that it was untrue, and as a proof emptied his glass more thoroughly
than usual.
"But you have been there."
"I was curious."
"Well, what did they say?"
The postmaster's face darkened, and as they continued to jest it
occurred to him that it was cowardly and contemptible to mock at
what in his opinion did not deserve mockery. Therefore he said
seriously and decidedly: "Leave me in peace! I am not a pietist, but I
think highly of them."
That was tantamount to a confession, and like an iron curtain
something fell between him and his friends. The expression of their
faces changed, and they seemed all at once strange to him. It was
the most curious experience he had had, and it was painful at the
same time.
He kept away for a few days and seemed to be in an introspective
mood. After that, by degrees, he resumed his old relations to them,
came again to the hotel, and was gradually the same as before, but
not quite. For he had "pricked up his ears" as the phrase goes.
The Saturday evening tête-à-tête were resumed as before. Now that
the postmaster had become more serious, and showed interest in
the deeper things of life, the doctor considered the time had come
to communicate to him some of the stock of observations which he
had made on human life, without any reference to his own particular
experience. It was reported that he had been married and had
children but no one knew exactly the facts of the case.
After he had satisfied himself that the postmaster liked being read to
aloud, he ventured to suggest to him that they should spend the
Saturday evenings in this higher form of recreation, after they had
first exchanged opinions on the questions of the day, as suggested
by the events of the week. The subject-matter read would then
provide occasion for further explanations and expressions of
thought.
Accordingly, on Saturday evening after supper, while the weather
outside was cold and wet, they sat in the best room of the doctor's
house. After searching for some time in a cupboard the doctor fished
out a manuscript; at the last moment he hesitated—perhaps
because it was autobiographical. In order to give himself courage he
began with some preliminary remarks.
"I don't think that, in your recollection, I have expressed my views
on a certain question—the most important one of our time. This
question, which touches the deepest things in life, and is treated
most superficially because it is taken up in a spirit of partisanship....
I mean——"
"Nevermind! I know!"
"You are afraid of it, but I am not, for it is no question for me, but a
riddle or an insoluble problem. You know that there are insoluble
problems whose insolubility can be proved, but still men continue to
investigate the unsearchable."
"Come to the point! Let us argue afterwards."
"And they have tried to make laws to regulate the behaviour of
married people to each other; that is as though one should lay down
rules for forming a friendship or falling in love. Well and good! I will
tell you a story or two, and then we shall see whether the matter
comes under the head of consideration at all, or whether the usual
laws of thought apply in this case."
"Very well."
"One thing more. Don't think because quarantine is mentioned in the
story that it is my story. That is buried deeper. Now we will begin."
 THE DOCTOR'S FIRST STORY

They had gone off, taken the almost matter-of-course flight. An

outcry rang through their social circle; people pressed their hands to
the region of their heart, shuddered, lamented, condemned,
according as each had figured to him or herself the terrible tragedy
which had been played; two hearts had been torn asunder, two
families raged against each other; there was a lonely husband and a
deserted child; a desolate home, a career destroyed, entangled
affairs which could not be put straight, and broken friendships. Two
men were sitting in a restaurant and discussing the affair.
"But why did they run away? I think it disgusting!"
"On the contrary! I consider that ordinary decency requires that they
should leave the field to the irreproachable husband; then at any
rate they need not meet in the streets. Besides, it is more honest to
be divorced than to form an illicit tie."
"But why could they not keep their faith and vows? We for our part
hold out for life through grief and joy."
"Yes, and how does it look afterwards? Like an old bird's-nest in
autumn! Other times, other manners."
"But it is terrible in any case."
"Not least for the runaways. Now it will be the turn of the man who
took all the consequences on himself. He will be paid out."
"And so will she."

The story was as follows. The now divorced married pair had met
three years before in a watering-place, and passed through all the
stages of being in love in the normal way. They discovered, as usual,
that they had been born for the special purpose of meeting each
other and wandering through life hand in hand. In order to be
worthy of her he gave up all doubtful habits and refined his
language and his morals. She seemed to him an angel sent by God
to open his eyes and to point him upwards. He overcame the usual
difficulties regarding the publishing of the banns, convinced that
those very difficulties were placed in his way in order to give him an
opportunity of showing his courage and energy.
They read the scandalous anonymous letters which generally follow
engagements together, and put them in the fire. She wept, it is true,
over the wickedness of men, but he said the purpose of it was to
test their faith in each other.
The period of their betrothal was one long intoxication. He declared
that he did not need to drink any more, for her presence made him
literally drunk. Once in a way they felt the weirdness of the solitude
which surrounded them, for their friends had given them up,
considering themselves superfluous.
"Why do people avoid us?" she asked one evening as they walked
outside the town.
"Because," he answered, "men run away when they see happiness."
They did not notice that they themselves avoided intercourse with
others, as they actually did. He, especially, showed a real dread of
meeting his old bachelor friends, for they seemed to him like
enemies, and he saw their sceptical grimaces, which were only too
easy to interpret.
"See! there he is caught! To think of the old rascal letting himself be
hoodwinked!" etc. For the young bachelors were of the opinion then,
as now, that love was a piece of trickery which sooner or later must
be unmasked.
But the conversation of the betrothed pair kept them above the
banalities of everyday life, and they lived, as people say rightly,
above the earth. But they began to feel afraid of the solitude which
surrounded them and drove them together. They tried to go among
other people, partly from the need of showing their happiness, and
partly to quiet themselves. But when after the theatre they entered
a restaurant, and she arranged her hair at the glass in the hall, he
felt as though she was adorning herself for strangers. And when
they sat down at the table, he became instantaneously silent, for her
face assumed a new expression which was strange to him. Her
glances seemed to parry the looks of strangers. They both became
silent, and his face wore an anxious expression. It was a dismal
supper, and they soon left.
When they came out she asked, somewhat out of humour at being
disappointed of a pleasure, "Are you vexed with me?"
"No, my dear, I cannot be vexed with you. But I bleed inwardly when
I see young fellows desecrate you with their looks." So their visits to
the restaurant ceased.
The weeks before the marriage were spent in arranging their future
dwelling. They had discussed carpets and curtains, had interviewed
workmen and shopmen, and in so doing had descended from their
ideal heights. Now they wanted to go out to get rid of these prosaic
impressions. So they went, but with that ominous silence when the
heads of a pair feel empty and someone seems to walk between
them. He tried to rally himself and put her in good spirits but
unsuccessfully.
"I hang too heavily upon you," she said, and let go of his arm. He
did not answer, for he really felt some relief. That annoyed her and
she drew nearer the wall. The conversation was at an end, and they
soon found themselves before her door.
"Good night," she said curtly.
"Good night," he replied with equal curtness, and they parted
obviously to their mutual relief. This time there was no kiss in the
passage and he did not wait outside the glass door to watch her
slender figure move gracefully up the first flight of stairs.
He went down the street with an elastic gait and drawing a deep
breath of relief. He felt released from something oppressive, which
nevertheless had been charming for three months. Pulling himself
together, he mentally picked up the dropped threads of a past which
now seemed strong and sincere. He hurried on, his ego exulted, and
both his arms, as they swung, felt like wings.
That the affair was over he felt no doubt, but he saw no reason for
it, and with wide-awake consciousness confronted a fact which he
unhesitatingly accepted. When he came near his door he met an old
friend whom, without further ado, he took by the arm, and invited to
share his simple supper and to talk. His friend looked astonished,
but followed him up the stairs.
They ate and drank, smoked and chatted till midnight, discussing
every variety of topic, old reminiscences and affairs of State, the
Reichstag and political economy. There was not a word regarding his
betrothal and marriage, or even an allusion to them. It was a very
enjoyable evening and he seemed to have gone back three months
in his life. He noticed that his voice assumed a more manly tone,
that he spoke his thoughts straight out as they came, without having
to take the trouble to round off the corners of strong words to
emphasise some expressions, and soften down others in order not to
give offence. He felt as though he had found himself again, thrown
off a strait-jacket, and laid aside a mask. He accompanied his friend
downstairs to open the house-door.
"Well, you will be married in eight days," said the latter with the
usual sceptical grimace. It was as though he had pressed a button
and the door slammed to in answer.
When he came to his room, he felt seized with disgust; he took the
things off the table, cleared up, swept the room, and then became
conscious of what he had lost, and how low he had sunk.
He felt he had been unfaithful to his betrothed, because he had
given his soul to another, even though that other was a man. He had
lost something better than that which he thought he had gained.
What he had found again was merely his old selfish, inconsiderate,
comfortable, everyday ego, with its coarseness and uncleanness,
which his friend liked because it suited his own.
And now it was all over, and the link broken for ever! The great
solitude would resume its sway, the ugly bachelor life begin again. It
did not occur to him to sit down and write a letter, for he felt it
would be useless. Therefore he tried to weary himself in order to
obtain sleep, soaked his whole head in cold water, and so went to
bed. The little ceremony of winding up his watch made, to-night, a
peculiar impression on him. Everything had to be renewed at night,
even time itself. Perhaps her love only needed a night's rest in order
to recommence.
When he awoke the following morning, the sun shone into the room.
An indescribable feeling of quietness had taken possession of him,
and he felt that life was good as it was, yes, better to-day than
usual, for his soul felt at home again after a long excursion. He
dressed himself and went to his office, opened his letters, read the
newspaper, and felt quite calm all the time. But this unnatural calm
began at last to make him uneasy. He felt an increasing nervousness
and a feverishness over his whole body. The vacuum began to be
filled again with her soul; the electric band had been stretched, and
the stream cut off, but it was still there; there had only been a break
in the current, and now all the recollections rushed upon him, all
their beautiful and great experiences, all the elevated feelings and
great thoughts which they had amassed together, all the dream-
world in which they had lived, so unlike the present world of prose
where they now found themselves.
With a feeling of despair he betook himself to his correspondence in
order to conceal his emotions, and began to answer letters with
calmness, order, and clearness. Offers were accepted on certain
conditions, and declined on definite grounds. He went into questions
of coffee and sugar, exchange prices and accounts with unusual
clearness and decision.
A clerk brought him a letter, which he saw at once was from her.
"The messenger waits for an answer," he said.
Without looking up from his desk, the merchant had at once decided
and replied: "He needn't wait."
In that moment he had said to himself: "Explanations, reproaches,
accusations—how can I answer such things?"
And the letter lay unopened while his business correspondence went
on with stormy celerity.

When his fiancée had parted from him on the previous evening her
first emotion had been anger—anger to think that he, the merchant,
had dared to despise her. She herself belonged to an official's family
and had dreamt of playing a rôle in society. His warm and faithful
affection had made her gradually forget this. Since he was never
weary of telling her what an ennobling influence she exercised on his
life, and since she herself perceived how he became refined and
beautiful under her hand, she felt herself to be a higher being. His
steady veneration kindled her self-esteem and she grew and
blossomed in the sunshine which his love spread around her. When
that was suddenly extinguished, it grew cold and dark around her;
she felt herself dwindle down to her original insignificance, shrivel
and disappear. This discovery that she had been the victim of an
error and that his love was the cause of her new life and the
enlargement of her personality, aroused her hatred against the man
who had given her such clear proof that her existence depended on
him and on his love. Now that he was no longer her lover, he
became the tradesman whom she despised.
"A fellow who sells coffee and sugar!" she said to herself, as she fell
asleep, "I could change him for a better one."
But when she awoke after a good night's sleep, she felt alarmed at
the disgrace of being given up. A broken engagement, after two
offers, would always cast a shadow over her life and make it difficult
to procure another fiancé.
In a spiteful mood she sat down to write the letter, in which in a
lofty, insulting tone she demanded an explanation, and at the same
time asked him to come and see her.
When the messenger returned with the news that there was no
answer she fell in a rage, and prepared to go out. She intended to
find him in his office, where she had never yet been, and before the
eyes of his clerks throw his ring on the ground to show how deeply
she despised him. So she went.
She stood outside the door and knocked. But since no one opened
or answered she entered and stood in the hall. Through the glass
pane of the inner door she saw her betrothed bending over the large
ledger, his face intent and serious. She had never seen him at work
before. And when at work every man, even the most insignificant, is
imposing. Sacred work, which makes a man what he is, invested his
appearance with the dignity of concentrated strength, and she was
seized with a feeling of respect for him which she could not throw
off.
Just then he was inspecting in the ledger the entries of the expenses
of furnishing their house.
They had absorbed his savings during the ten years he had been in
business, and though not petty-minded, he thought with sorrow and
bitterness, how they were all thrown away. He sighed and looked up
in order not to see the tell-tale figures. Then, all of a sudden, he
noticed behind the glass pane of the door, like a crayon drawing in a
frame, a pale face and two large eyes full of an expression of pain
and sympathy. He rose and stood reverently, mute in his great, virile
grief, interrogative and trembling. Then he saw in her looks how the
lost love had returned, and with that all was said.
When after a while they were walking past Skeppsholm, bright with
their recovered happiness, he asked: "What happened to us
yesterday?" (He said "us" for he did not wish to raise the question
whose fault it was.)
"I don't know; I cannot explain it; but it was the most terrible
experience I have had. We will never do it again!"
"No! we will never do it again. And now, Ebba, it is for our whole
lives, you and I!"
She pressed his arm, fully convinced that after this fiery trial,
nothing in the world could separate them, so far as it depended on
themselves.

II

And they were married. But instead of hiding their happiness in their
beautiful clean home, they set out on a journey among strange,
indifferent, curious, and even hostile people. Then they went from
hotel to hotel, were stared at at tables d'hôte, got headaches in
museums, and in the evening were dumb with fatigue and put out of
humour by mishaps.
Tom away from his work and his surroundings, the industrious man
found it difficult to collect himself. When his thoughts went back to
the business matters which he had left in the hands of others, he
was inattentive and tiresome. They both longed for home, but were
ashamed to return and to be received with ridicule.
The first week they occupied the time by talking over the
recollections of their engagement; during the second week they
discussed the journeys of the first. They never lived in the present
but in the past. When there was an interval of dullness or silence he
had always comforted her with the thought that their intercourse
would be easier when they had amassed a store of common
memories, and had learnt to avoid each other's antipathies.
Meanwhile, out of consideration, they had borne with these and
suppressed their own peculiarities and weaknesses as well-brought-
up people usually do. This led to a feeling of restraint and being on
one's guard which was exhausting; and the time had come for
making important discoveries. Since he possessed more self-control
than she did, he was careful not to say too much, but concealed one
inclination and habit after another, while she revealed all hers. As he
loved her, he wished to be agreeable, and therefore learned to be
silent. The result was that with all her inherited habits, peculiarities,
and prejudices she had so insinuated herself into his life that he
began to feel himself attenuated and annihilated.
One evening the young wife was seized with a sudden desire to
praise her sister, a hateful coquette, whom her husband disliked
because she had tried, from selfish motives, to break their
engagement. He listened to his wife in respectful silence, now and
then murmuring an indistinct assent. At last his wife's praise of her
sister mounted to a paean, and though he thought her affection for
her relatives a fine trait in her character, he could not entirely place
himself in her skin nor see with her eyes. So he took refuge in the
kind of silence which is more eloquent than plain words. This silence
was accompanied by a gnawing of the lips and a violent perspiration.
All the words and opinions he had suppressed found mute
expression in these movements of his lips—he merely "marked time"
as actors say—and the breaths which were not used in forming
words, he emitted through his nose. Simultaneously the pores of his
skin opened as so many safety-valves for his suppressed emotions,
and it became really unpleasant to have him at the table.
The young wife did not conceal her annoyance, for she feared no
revenge. She made an ugly gesture, which always ill becomes a
woman; she held her nose with both fingers, looking around to
those present as if to ask whether she was not right!
Her husband became pale, rose, and went out. Several people were
sitting close by who witnessed the unpleasant scene. When he came
out on the streets of the foreign town, he unbuttoned his waistcoat
and breathed freely. And then his thoughts took their own course
ruthlessly.
"I am becoming a hypocrite simply out of consideration for her. One
lie is piled up on another, and some day it will all come down with a
crash. What a coarse woman she is! And it was from her that I
believed I should learn and be refined into a higher being. It is all
optical delusion and deceit. All this 'love' is merely a piece of trickery
on the part of nature to dazzle one's sight."
He tried to picture to himself what was now happening in the dining-
room. She would naturally weep and appeal with her eyes to those
present as if to ask whether she was not very unfortunate with such
a husband. It was indeed her habit so to appeal with her eyes, and
when he expected an answer from her, she always turned her looks
on those around as if asking for help against her oppressor. He was
always treated as a tyrant, although out of pure kindness he had
made himself her slave. There was no help for it!
He found himself down by the harbour, and caught sight of the
swimming-baths—that was just what he wanted. Quickly he plunged
into the sea, and swam far out into the darkness. His soul, tortured
by mosquito-stings and nettle-pricks, was able to cool itself, and he
felt how he left a wake of dirt behind him. He lay on his back and
gazed at the starry sky, but at the same moment heard a whistling
and splashing behind him. It was a great steamer coming in, and he
had to get out of the way to save His life. He made for the lamp-lit
shore and saw the hotel with all its lights.
When he had dressed, he felt an unmeasured sorrow—sorrow over
his lost paradise. At the same time all bitterness had passed away.
In this mood he entered his room and found his wife seated at the
writing-table. She rose and threw herself into his arms without a
word of apology; naturally enough he did not desire it, and she had
no idea of having done wrong.
They sat down and wept together over their vanished love, for that
it had gone there was no doubt. But it had gone without their will,
and they sorrowed over it, as over some dear friend which they had
not killed but could not save. They were confronted by a fact before
which they were helpless; love the good genius who magnifies every
trifle, rejuvenates what is old, beautifies what is ugly, had
abandoned them, and life stretched before them in naked monotony.
But it did not occur to them that they would be separated or were
separated, for their grief itself was an experience they shared, which
held them together. They were also united in a common grudge
against Fate, which had so deceived them in their tenderest
emotions. In their great dejection they were not capable of such a
strong feeling as hate. They only felt resentment and indignation at
Fate, which was their scapegoat and lightning-conductor.
They had never talked so harmoniously and so intimately before,
and while their voices assumed a more affectionate tone, they
formed a firm resolve to go home and commence their domestic life.
He talked himself into a state of enthusiasm at the thought of home,
where one could exclude all evil influences, and where peace and
harmony would reign. She also dilated on the same topic with similar
warmth till they had forgotten their sorrow. And when they had
forgotten it, they smiled as before, and behold! love was again
there, and not dead at all; its death was also a delusion and so was
all their grief.

III

He had realised his youthful dream of a wife and a home, and for
eight days the young wife also thought that her dream had come
true. But on the ninth day she wanted to go out.
"Where?" he asked.
"Say, yourself!"
No, she must say. He proposed the opera, but Wagner was being
performed there, and she could not bear him. The theatre? No,
there they had Maeterlinck, and that was silly. He did not wish to go
to an operetta, for they always ridiculed what he now regarded as
sacred. Nor did he like the circus, where there were only horses and
queer women.
So the discussion went on and they privately discovered a great
quantity of divergences in tastes and principles. In order to please
her, he proposed an operetta, but she would not accept the sacrifice.
He suggested that they should give a party, but then they discovered
that there was no one to invite, for they had separated from their
friends, and their friends from them.
So they sat there, still in harmony, and considered their destiny
together, without having yet begun to blame each other. They stayed
at home, and felt bored.
Next day, the same scene was repeated. He now saw that his
happiness was at stake; therefore he took courage, and said in a
friendly way but decidedly, "Dress yourself and we will go to an
operetta." She beamed, put on her new dress, and was quickly
ready. When he saw her so happy and pretty, he felt a stab in his
heart, and thought to himself, "Now she brightens up, when she can
dress for others and not for me." When he then conducted her to
the theatre, he felt as though he were escorting a stranger, for her
thoughts were already in the auditorium, which was her stage,
where she wished to appear, and where she could now appear under
her husband's escort without being insulted.
Since they could already divine each other's thoughts, this
alienation, while they were on the way, changed into something like
hostility. They longed to be in the theatre in order to find something
to divert their emotions, though he felt as though he were going to
an execution.
When they came to the ticket-office there were no tickets left.
Then her face changed, and when she looked at him, and thought
she saw an expression of satisfaction, which possibly was latent
there, she broke out, "That pleases you?"
He wished to deny it, but could not, for it was true. On the way
home he felt as though he were dragging a corpse with him, and
that a hostile one.
The fact that she had discovered his very natural thought, which he
had self-denyingly repressed, hurt him like a rudeness for one has
no right to punish the thoughts of another. He would have borne it
more easily if there had been no tickets left, for he was already
accustomed to be a scapegoat. But now he lamented over his lost
happiness, and that he had not the power to amuse her.
When she observed that he was not angry, but only sad, she
despised him. They came home in ominous silence; she went
straight to her bedroom and shut the door. He sat down in the
dining-room, where he lit the lamps and candles, for the darkness
seemed to be closing round him.
Then he heard a cry from the bedroom, the cry of a child, but of a
grown one. When he came in he saw a sight which tore his heart.
She was on her knees, her hands stretched towards him, wailing as
she wept, "Don't be angry with me, don't be hard; you put out the
light round me, you stifle me with your severity; I am a child that
trusts life and must have sunshine."
He could find no answer, for she seemed sincere. And he could not
defend himself, for that meant arraigning her thoughts, which he
also could not do.
Dumb with despair, he went into his room and felt crushed. He had
pillaged her youth, shut her up, torn out her joy by the roots. He
had not the light which this tender flower needed, and she withered
under his hand. These self-reproaches broke down all the self-
confidence he had hitherto possessed; he felt unworthy of her love,
or of any woman's, and felt himself a murderer who had killed her
happiness.
After he had suffered all these pangs of conscience he began to
examine himself calmly and with sober common sense.
"What have I done?" he asked himself. "What have I done to her? All
the good that I could; I have done her will in everything. I did not
wish to go out in the evening, when I had come home after the
work of the day, and I did not wish to see an operetta. An operetta
was formerly a matter of indifference to me, but now it is distasteful,
since through my love for her I have entered another sphere of
emotion which I do not hesitate to call a higher one. How foolish of
me! I had the idea that she would draw me out of the mire, but she
draws me down; she has drawn me down the whole time. Then it is
not she but my love which draws upward, for there is a higher and a
lower. Yes, the sage was right who said, 'Men marry to have a home
to come to to, women marry to have a home to go out of.' Home is
not for the woman but for the man and the child. All women
complain of being shut up at home, and so does mine, although she
goes about the whole morning paying visits, and haunting cafés and
shops."
He began to work his way out of this slough of despond, and found
himself on the side where the fault was not. But again he saw the
heart-rending spectacle of his young wife on her knees begging him,
with outstretched hands, not to kill her youth and brightness with his
severity. Since it was foreign to his nature to act a part, he felt sure
that she was not doing so, and felt again like a criminal, so that he
was tempted to commit suicide, for the mere fact of his existence
crushed her happiness.
But again his sense of justice was aroused, for he had no right to
take the blame on himself when he did not deserve it. He was not
hard but he was serious, and it was just his seriousness which had
made the deepest impression on the young girl and decided her to
prefer him to other frivolous young men. He had not wished to kill
her joy; on the contrary he had done everything in his power to
procure for her the quiet joys of domesticity; he had not even
wished to deny her the ambiguous pleasure of the operetta, but had
sacrificed himself and accompanied her thither. What she had said
was therefore simply nonsense. And yet her grief had been so deep
and sincere. What was the meaning of it?
Then came the answer. It was the girl's leave-taking of youth—which
was inevitable. It was therefore as natural as it was beautiful—this
outbreak of despair at the brevity of spring. But he was not to blame
for it, and if his wife perhaps in a year was to become a mother, it
was now the right time to bid farewell to girlish joys in order to
prepare for the higher joys of maternity.
He had, therefore, nothing to reproach himself with, and yet he did
reproach himself with everything. With a quick resolve, he shook off
his depression and went to his wife, firmly determining not to say a
word in his defence, for that meant extinguishing her love, but
simply to invite her to reconciliation without a reckoning.
He found his wife on the point of being weary of solitude, and she
would have welcomed the society of anyone, even that of her
husband, rather than be quite alone.
Then they came to an agreement to give a party and to invite his
friends and hers, who would be sure to come. This evening their
need for domestic peace and comfort was so mutual that they
agreed, without any difficulty, who should be invited and who not.
They closed the day by drinking a bottle of champagne. The
sparkling drink loosened her tongue and now she took the
opportunity to make him gentle and jesting reproaches for his
egotism and discourtesy towards his wife. She looked so pretty as
she raised herself on tiptoe above him, and she seemed so much
greater and nobler when she had rolled all her faults upon him, that
he thought it a pity to pull her down, and therefore went to sleep
laden with all the defects and shortcomings which he had taken on
himself.
When he awoke the next morning he lay still in order to think over
the events of the past evening. And now he despised himself for
having kept silence and refrained from defending himself. Now he
perceived how the whole of their life together was built upon his
silence and the suppression of his personality. For if he had spoken
yesterday, she would have gone—she always threatened to go to her
mother when he "ill-treated" her, and she called it "ill-treatment"
every time that he was tired of making himself out worse than he
was. Here they were building on falsity, and the building would
collapse some day when he ventured on a criticism or personal
remark regarding her.
Reverence, worship, blind obedience—that was the price of her love
—he must either pay it, or go without it.
The party took place. The husband, as a good host, did all he could
to efface himself and bring his wife into prominence. His friends,
who were gentlemen, behaved to her in their turn with all the
courtesy which they felt was due to a young wife.
After supper music was proposed. There was a piano in the house,
but the wife could not play, and the husband did not want to. A
young doctor undertook the task, and since he had to choose his
own programme, he had resort to his favourite, Wagner. The
mistress of the house did not know what he was playing but did not
like the deep seriousness of it. When at last the thunder ceased, her
husband sat uneasily there, for he could surmise what was coming.
As a ladylike hostess, she had to say something. She thought a
simple "thanks" insufficient, and asked what the music was.
Then it came out—Wagner!
Her husband felt the look which he feared, which told him that he
was a traitor who perhaps had wished to entice her to praise in
ignorance "the worst music which she knew." During the time of
their engagement she had certainly listened attentively to her
fiance's long speeches in defence of Wagner, but immediately after
their marriage, she had declared openly that she could not bear him.
Therefore her husband had never played to her, and she feigned not
to know that he could play. But now she felt insidiously surprised,
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