Читать книгу Guest the One-Eyed онлайн

71 страница из 85

Ormarr threw himself back and closed his eyes.

Aage Blad sat watching him; there was a dull, resigned expression about the corners of the mouth; the forehead was already deeply lined. There was strength as well as weakness in the face, he thought. “A strange fellow,” he told himself.

They smoked in silence for a while. Then, without opening his eyes, Ormarr said:

“It is a long time since I saw my home. Funny thing, not feeling home-sick all these years. Can’t understand it just now. I never longed for home till this winter. As soon as the summer comes I must go back. Like to come too?”

“H’m—I don’t know. Iceland—the very name of it makes me shiver. Anyhow, you’ll have to redeem that fur coat you gave me—extravagant person that you are.”

“But it’s not so cold at home. Not in the summer, at any rate. The coldest thing about Iceland is its name. And the nights there—so wonderfully calm and light they are in spring.... It’s a long time to wait till the spring. I wish I were back home again now. I’ve never seen a sky so blue and deep as there. Before I came to Denmark I had an idea that in a flat country one would see more of the sky than at home, with all the mountains and their shadows. But then the mountains are so far away. And once you get there... Aage, I would give all the forests in the world, all the orchards and cornfields and flower gardens, for a single mountain. But a real one, mind you, with huge rocky ridges, and green plateaus, and snow at the top. Good heavens, man, to think that I have one all to myself—yes, I own a mountain. I never thought of it before. Can you understand how I ever could stay away from it all so long? But I’m going back now—going home.”