Ida Brandt by Herman Bang Read Free Book Online Page B

awful.”
    “No,” said Brandt. ”I’m not well.”
    “I can see that all right. And your wife said it was only the usual thing.”
    Brandt sat there for a moment.
    “No,” he said and his head sank on his chest. “I can’t go over there.”
    The forester went out and fetched the doctor, who came in wearing tails and adorned with his decorations. “What’s wrong, old friend. Are you going to stay in bed on this happy day?” he said. But he suddenly became serious when he saw Brandt. “Lift him up,” he said to the forester and hurried to listen to Brandt’s chest and back.
    The music had stopped outside, and Madsen’s voice could be heard through the noise.
    “Now Madsen’s there with the flag,” said Brandt with a smile.
    The doctor continued to listen to Brandt’s back while the forester stood at the foot of the bed, leaning forward as though he, too, wanted to listen. “I need someone to go to Brædstrup,” was all the doctor said, and he went out.
    He sat down to write a prescription in the sitting room, surrounded by all the guests, while Mrs Brandt stood beside him and the members of the County Council were all talking in loud voices about the day and about the speakers and the festivities.
    “If Brandt has anything wrong with him it is always bad,” said Mrs Brandt.
    The doctor made no reply; from the bed, where he seemed to have settled down a little after seeing the doctor, Brandt said:
    “And how are things going to be arranged this evening?” He was thinking about the fireworks.
    They heard the members of the County Council go out through the garden. They had suddenly fallen quite silent.
    “There’s no need for anyone to bother about me,” said Brandt. “I’m feeling better now.”
    “All right,” said the forester.
    He went into the sitting room, where his wife still sat on a chair.
    “Let’s go then,” he said quietly. “We mustn’t frighten His Lordship.”
    They went out together with the doctor, and their footsteps could be heard dying away in the corridor until all was quite quiet. Mrs Brandt went around tidying up in the sick man’s room, dressed in black, her full silk dress rustling.
    “But one must never give up,” she said, tidying his pillows.
    She stood by the bed for a moment and then in the same voice said:
    “Now the pharmacist is going to present the candlesticks.”
    The sick man only shook his head – perhaps it was a fly – and said:
    “Aren’t you going to take the flowers over…?”
    “We’ll have to, of course,” said his wife.
    But out in the sitting room Ida started to cry because her father was not going to come.
    “Come, come,” said Mrs Brandt, wiping her face; but the child continued to cry a little as they went through the garden.
    Then it fell completely silent while Sofie sat knitting behind the door, and all that was to be heard was the buzzing of flies and the ticking of the grandfather clock, which suddenly sounded tough and hard.
    The sick man lay there, moving about in the bed. Having a temperature made one so restless.
    Now he could hear His Lordship’s voice – Sofie ran in stocking feet across to the fence – and he raised his head a little as though he was listening. Now he was welcoming His Excellency.
    But Brandt could not hear anything, and there were so many images in his mind, coming and going, from all his days and from the time when he came here and Her Ladyship was still alive and from the time when Ida was a baby.
    How fragile she was then and red and tiny…And she had known him before she knew her mother.
    Brandt suddenly took hold of the rope hanging there for the purpose and pulled himself up; now they were shouting three cheers for His Lordship.
    Then he fell back and dozed a little.
    When he opened his eyes, Miss Rosenfeld was sitting by his bed with Ida on her lap. Ida was scared and held her tight.
    “We just wanted to come across and see how you are, Mr Brandt,” said Miss Rosenfeld.
    “Aye, Miss