and got out the boat.  But perhaps it would frighten her, and possibly injure his own cause.  So he rowed out and out to the farthest islands, and there he frightened the birds.  At his approach they rose:  first a few, then many, then all protested in a hideous chorus of wild screams.  He was enveloped in an angry crowd, a pandemonium of birds.  But it did not ruffle his good humour.  “Wait a bit,” he said to them.  “Wait a bit, until the islands at Hellebergene are ‘protected,’ and the whole estate as well.  Then you shall come and be happy with us.  Good-bye till then!”

CHAPTER 4

He came to Christiania like a tall ship gay with flags.  His love was the music on board.

His numerous relations were ready to receive him.  Of these many were engineers, who were a jour with all his writings, which they had taken care should be well known.  Some of the largest mechanical undertakings in the country were in their hands, so that they had connections in every direction.

Once more the family had a genius in its midst; that is to say, one to make a show with.  Rafael went from entertainment to entertainment, from presentation to presentation, and wherever he or his mother went court was paid to them.

In all this the ladies of the family were even more active than their lords; and they had not been in the town many days before every one knew that they were to be the rage.

There are some people who always will hold aloof.  They are as irresponsive as a sooty kettle when you strike it.  They are like peevish children who say “I won’t,” or surly old dogs who growl at every one.  But he was so exceedingly genial, a capital fellow with the highest spirits.  He had looks as well; he was six feet high; and all those six feet were clothed in perfect taste.  He had large flashing eyes and a broad forehead.  He was practised in making clear to others all in which he was interested, and at such times how handsome he looked!  He was a thorough man of the world, able to converse in several languages at the cosmopolitan dinners which were a speciality of the Ravns.  He was the owner of one of the few extensive estates in Norway, and had the control, it was said, of a considerable fortune besides.

The half of this would have been enough to set all tongues wagging; therefore, first the family, then their friends, then the whole town feted him.  He was a nine days’ wonder!  One must know the critical, unimaginative natives of Christiania, who daily pick each other to pieces to fill the void in their existences; one must have admired their endless worrying of threadbare topics to understand what it must be when they got hold of a fresh theme.

Nothing which flies before the storm is more dangerous than desert sand, nothing can surpass a Christiania furor.