It was only a few weeks since he had given his plaid
to a shivering old woman in the Scottish stage-coach, and caught a
severe cold in consequence; but he had bestowed his charity in a
reserved, matter-of-fact way which made the act appear utterly
commonplace and unheroic. He found it less troublesome to shiver than
to be compelled to see some one else shivering, and his generosity
thus assumed the appearance of a deliberate choice between two evils.
Phenomena of this degree of complexity are extremely rare in Norway,
where human nature, as everything else, is of the large-lettered,
easily legible type; and even Tharald Ormgrass, who, in spite of his
good opinion of himself, was not an acute observer, had a lively sense
of the foreignness of the guest whom, for pecuniary reasons, he had
consented to lodge during the remainder of the summer.
A large, quaint, low-ceiled chamber on the second floor, with a
superfluity of tiny greenish window-panes, was assigned to the
stranger, and his African servant, Jake, was installed in a smaller
adjoining apartment. The day after his arrival Maurice spent in
unpacking and polishing his precious instruments, which, in the
incongruous setting of rough-hewn timbers and gaily painted Norse
furniture, looked almost fantastic.
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