"Good morning, Falk," he whispered, almost inaudibly, and his whole body seemed to rattle.
"Good morning, Ygberg," replied Falk, suddenly brightening up. "Sit down and have a cup of coffee! How are you? You look as if you had been lying under the ice."
"Oh! I've been so ill, so ill!"
"You seem to have had as jolly a summer as I had!"
"Have you had a hard time, too?" asked Ygberg, a faint hope that it had been the case brightening his yellow face.
"I can only say: Thank God that the cursed summer is over! It might be winter all the year round for all I care! Not only that one is suffering all the time, but one also has to watch others enjoying themselves! I never put a foot out of town; did you?"
"I haven't seen a pine tree since Lundell left Lill-Jans in June! And why should one want to see pine trees? It isn't absolutely essential; nor is a pine tree anything extraordinary! But that one can't have the pleasure, that's where the sting comes in."
"Oh, well! Never mind! It's clouding over in the east, therefore it will rain to-morrow; and when the sun shines again, it will be autumn. Your health!"
Ygberg looked at the punch as if it were poison, but he drank it nevertheless.
"But you wrote that beautiful story of the guardian angel, or the Marine Insurance Society 'Triton,' for Smith," remarked Falk. "Didn't it go against your convictions?"