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1084 |
THE DOOR-KEY |
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has she that which one calls " go " in her brain—genius ? And has she, what is of as much importance—luck ?'
' She has twice won a prize in the lottery,' said the cellar-man, * once she won a wardrobe, and once six pairs of sheets ; I call that luck, and she has that!'
' I will ask the key!' said the chamberlain. And he placed the key upon his forefinger and on the cellar-man's forefinger, let it turn itself and give letter by letter.
The key said, ' Victory and Fortune !' and so Lotte-Lena's future was settled.
The chamberlain at once gave her two books to read : the play of ' Dyveke ' and Knigge's ' Intercourse with People'. From that evening a kind of closer acquaintanceship between Lotte-Lena and the chamberlain's family began. She came up into the family, and the chamberlain thought that she was an intelligent girl; she believed in him and in the key. The chamberlain's wife saw, in the boldness with which she every moment showed her great ignorance, something childish and innocent. The couple, each in their own way, thought much of her, and she of them.
* There is such a nice smell upstairs/ said Lotte-Lena. There was a smell, a scent of apples in the passage, where the wife had laid out a whole barrel of ' greystone ' apples. There was also an incense smell of roses and lavender through all the rooms.
1 It is something lovely,' said Lotte-Lena. Her eyes were delighted with the many lovely flowers, which the chamberlain's wife always had here; yes, even in winter the lilac and cherry branches flowered here. The leafless branches were cut off and put in water, and in the warm room they soon bore leaves and flowers.
' One might believe that the bare branches were dead, but, look ! how they rise up from the dead.'
' That has never occurred to me before,' said Lotte-Lena. 1 Nature is charming ! '
And the chamberlain let her see his ' Key-book ' where he had written the remarkable things the key had said, even about half of an apple cake which had disappeared from the cupboard just the evening when the servant girl had a visit from her sweetheart. The chamberlain asked |
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