The things we do!

"
"Was there another lady with her when she left?"
"No."
I got up and went out. In the street I opened the letter and read:
"You _must_ not follow me about any more--"
Impassively I put the thing away. It had not surprised me, had made no new
impression. Thoroughly womanly, hasty words, written on impulse, with
underlining and a dash....
Then it occurred to me to go round to Froken Elisabeth's address; there
was still a glimmer of hope. I heard the door bell ring inside the house
as I pressed, and stood listening as in a whirling desert.
Froken Elisabeth had left an hour before.
Then wine, and then whisky. And then endless whisky. And altogether a
twenty-one days' debauch, in the course of which a curtain falls and hides
my earthly consciousness. In this state, it enters my head one day to send
something to a little cottage in the country. It is a mirror, in a gay
gilt frame. And it was for a little maid, by name Olga, a creature
touching and sweet to watch as a young calf.


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