第35页 / 共1294页

"Young man," he went on, raising his head again, "in your face I

seem to read some trouble of mind. When you came in I read it,

and that was why I addressed you at once. For in unfolding to you

the story of my life, I do not wish to make myself a

laughing-stock before these idle listeners, who indeed know all

about it already, but I am looking for a man of feeling and

education. Know then that my wife was educated in a high-class

school for the daughters of noblemen, and on leaving she danced

the shawl dance before the governor and other personages for

which she was presented with a gold medal and a certificate of

merit. The medal... well, the medal of course was sold--long ago,

hm... but the certificate of merit is in her trunk still and not

long ago she showed it to our landlady. And although she is most

continually on bad terms with the landlady, yet she wanted to

tell someone or other of her past honours and of the happy days

that are gone.