Falk hurried away as fast as he could. And for a long time he could hear behind him outbursts of laughter and shouts of bravo. He could distinguish Levi's voice yelling: "It's divine, it's colossal—it's colossal!" And Borg's: "Traitor! Traitor!"
CHAPTER XX
ON THE ALTAR
The clock in the Town-hall Vaults of X-köping thundered the seventh hour of an October evening as the manager of the Municipal Theatre came in. He beamed as a toad may beam after a good meal; he looked happy, but his facial muscles, not accustomed to express such emotions, drew the skin into worried folds and disfigured him still more than usual. He nodded patronizingly to the little shrivelled head-waiter who was standing behind the bar counting the guests.
"Well, and how's the world treating you?" screamed the manager in German—he had dropped the habit of speaking long ago.
"Thank you!" replied the head-waiter in the same language, and as this was all the German the two gentlemen knew, the conversation was continued in Swedish.
"Well, what do you think of the lad Gustav? Wasn't his Don Diego excellent? Don't you admit that I can make actors? What?"
"There's no denying that! Fancy, that boy! It's quite true what you said, sir. It's easier to do something with a man who hasn't been ruined by book-learning."
"Books are the ruin of a good many people. Nobody knows that better than I do. However, do you know anything about books? I do! You will see queer things when young Rehnhjelm plays Horatio! I've promised him the part, because he gave me no peace; but I've also warned him not to look to me for any assistance. I don't want to be held responsible for his failure; I also told him that I was allowing him to play the part to show him how difficult it is to act when one has no talent. Oh! He shall have such a snub that he'll never look at a part again. See if he won't! But that isn't what I want to say to you! Have you got two vacant rooms?"
"The two small ones?"