And his salary alone was not
sufficient.
"Yes, they had given no thought to the morrow. But, dear me, one was
young only once! Now, however, there would be a change."
On the following morning the assistant called on an old schoolfriend,
a registrar, to ask him to stand security for a loan.
"You see, my dear fellow, when one is about to become a father, one
has to consider how to meet increasing expenses."
"Quite so, old man," answered the registrar, "therefore I have been
unable to get married. But you are fortunate in having the means."
The assistant hesitated to make his request. How could he have the
audacity to ask this poor bachelor to help him to provide the expenses
for the coming event? This bachelor, who had not the means to found a
family of his own? He could not bring himself to do it.
When he came home to dinner, his wife told him that two gentlemen had
called to see him.
"What did they look like? Were they young? Did they wear eye-glasses?
Then there was no doubt, they were two lieutenants, old friends of his
whom he had met at Vaxholm."
"No, they couldn't have been lieutenants; they were too old for that."
"Then he knew; they were old college friends from Upsala, probably P.
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