It was early in men to spend a New Year’s Eve in Borg. All of Bergshamra were there, as did the priestess, Dr. Bentick and his son Allan and a whole host of other neighbors.
In two large spruce-lit spruce trees, a number of small packages were hanging. There was a New Year’s lottery that was attended by both younger and older. Happiness was great when, for example, the vicar won the ribbon robe, Uno Clareus’s needle book, Lucia Vilde’s cigar package, etc. After the lottery, the barter started and it was almost as fun.
Then gradually the parents retreated separately, gentlemen to the captain’s room, the ladies to the library. For the youth wanted the hall for their part. It was the biggest room and there was a piano, and now it would start playing and dancing.
Anna Sander easily felt lonely in a big company, especially in the joyful youth crowd. In part, she had been raised from childhood to consider fun as some kind of trap, in part she lived more in her mindset than in external reality, and she felt that she was easily lost when she offered something other than work.
Tonight he had imagined sitting together with Erik in some corner for fun, because Erik, like Annak, usually felt outside the club. But to his wonders, he noticed Erik’s dancing at his party.
She had no idea that Erik knew how to dance, and at least she thought she could dance when she was so heavy she was in this new year.
Anna stood in her corner watching her. His unaccustomed eyes clearly noticed that Erik was badly dancing. But when he saw a glimpse of his brother’s face, he read about the defiant determination. Intuitively, Anna realized that she could not wait for her brother tonight to follow her lonely corner. This dance and amused, as if it were right to decide to use the available entertainment, to escape the dark thoughts.
– Are you in that?
Anna quickly turned her head. It stood at Allan Bentick’s attention position beside him.
Allan Bentick absolutely had an awe-inspiring look. He was not long but straight and supple. His Japanese vino over his dark eyelid eyes made him look sloppy. The beautiful mouth upward with her mouth-blowing mouth was almost a waste of a man’s face, and a fine, straight nose would have been a good girl. But he did not look like a girlfriend at all, and knowingly knew the power of a distinct individual personality radiating from him.
– Whatever, said Anna, laughing.
– I thought it was, but I wasn’t sure. I haven’t been home for two years, as you know, and you have become great and got long skirts and hair for a bitch. Don’t you want to dance one roll with me?
– I can’t dance, I’ve never learned.
– Running! Come on!
He circled his arm around Anna and quickly took him to dance despite Anna’s resistance attempts.
And it did amazingly well, better than Anna could ever have thought. Allan was so strong and supple and humming the pace in Anna’s ear so gracefully that her legs were moving in dance as she did. If he made a mistake that could have messed up, Allan just picked him up and continued to dance without noticing his efforts.
Anna laughed at her embarrassment and admiration.
– How powerful are you!
– So I guess. I am gymnasting and riding and dancing and dancing. Such will become strong and happy. You should do it too, instead of sitting and reading the prayer strip.
– I don’t do it!
– I thought you did. You look like that.
– Are you kidding?
– From the saint.
– You’re always as funny.
– Worse, I hope.
How happy Uncle Bentick can be when you’re back home!
– Of course. He curses for me worse than his cons, and that is probably the best proof of it.
Anna felt embarrassed and regretted her thoughtless speech. It had come to her as a result of her own joy of seeing Allan, and she had completely forgotten the strange behavior of her doctor who was known in the community and which was usually explained by the dislike of the son and the mother’s resemblance. According to general criticism, the mother had been the right witch to both charm and deceive.
Anna was now wondering if Allan had spoken with that happy carefree voice to conceal the sadness of her father’s treatment. But he didn’t seem to have carried secret sorrow. Those witch eyes only radiantly emanated when they met Anna’s eyes and they read their thoughts clearly.
– Live your worries for me, you! I’ll get along with “Pater”. He’s not as dangerous as he looks.
And so they started to rotate again. They had rested for a moment, as Anna, who was unaccustomed to dance, began to lighten up. But oh, how it was fun! He had never believed that Dancing would be so fun. For the first time in his life, he felt himself very young.
Allan saw how he enjoyed it and kept him as he was doing good deeds.
Now, when the ice was broken, dance with Anna, but it didn’t go with anyone as well as Allan, and Anna told her the next dance they were dancing together.
– Then I’ll take care of you for the rest of the night, he explained. I call myself your dance master and I’ll teach you whatever dance you play.
Lucia was sitting at the piano playing dance music. Dr. Bentick had come from the Lords’ Room and was now standing next to watching how gracefully those clever hands flew with the keyboards. He played incomparably fiercely and nicely.
– Why aren’t we dancing when we see the pace so sure? asked the doctor.
“I need someone to call, otherwise there will be no dance,” Lucia replied without interruption.
– That’s what a parent can do, the doctor thought.
– Don’t I belong to them?
The doctor murmured something that could just as well sign up as opposition, and disappeared, but returned after five minutes with Mrs Jennings.
– The doctor wants to dance with Lucia and has asked me to play, explained Mrs Jennings with the most cursory smile that Lucia was not attentive to.
He glanced up at his eyebrows and looked at the doctor.
“I haven’t said I want to dance,” he said.
– We may prefer to dance with young cavalryers like my old one? said Doctor Drunken.
– I don’t base much on age. The doctor did not dumb with me, said Lucia and got up.
Mrs. Jennings sat in her seat from the call. And the doctor went to dance with Lucia.
It had been a long time since he had been dancing, but he was a great dancer in his youth and was immediately up and running. But even if his wife danced enthusiastically, every member of his being had a rhythm and digestion.
Allan Bentick and Irene were just starting to dance with each other when they noticed that unexpected couple and stopped.
– What’s going on with the patter? chuckled Allan laughing.
– Isn’t Lucia aunt? said Irene with enthusiasm.
Allan followed his moment with his movements.
– He’s dancing like Mozart’s tone, he said.
Her obvious admiration was inspired by Irene.
– No one’s like him! convinced eighteen years old with love.
Allan looked amused at him.
– Jaha, or so. Little schoolgirls are always dreaming about their tutor, or what?
Irene giggled her head indignantly.
– Little schoolgirls! she was hissing.
– Yeah, what else are you all over?
– Brita and I are adults, I get permission to say to you. We only read languages and take lessons, but we have finished school.
– The rubbish to the dust in your discipline!
– Eyebrow! Do we stand here to contend with eternity?
Allan obeyed the call and took her to dance.
– Did we dare them, Pater and that divine? he asked, and the expressive expression in his eyes told her that he really wanted to do that.
But Irene pressed her legs so firmly on the floor that Allan had to stop.
– Promise me you don’t do anything so low! His eyes glittered well against Allan, and he continued to be amused by his teasing until he saw the best to rebuke him. And it went very easily.
“The doctor has the honor of his son,” Lucia said to her dancing friend.
– What kind of glory? asked the doctor in his most dumb manner.
– He looks so funny and cheerful and has something to win.
What he wins, I’ll leave it to him, Doctor replied disgruntledly.
Her habit of amusing Lucia in vain.
“Everyone, except his father, seems to be fond of him,” Lucia pointed out.
– He has the skill to put the girls’ heads on the bike if it is now pretending to be a special skill.
I’m just gonna kick my little sweetheart students to the bike!
– That’s little, as long as you don’t just put the head of the teacher on the bike.
– There’s no danger! said Lucia a little sadly, which she was not aware of.
The doctor looked at him sharply.
– Is it perhaps already on the bike?
Lucia emerged from her question and realized that she had somehow forgotten to express herself so that the doctor could come to the conclusion that she had a secret.
– Of course! he responded lightly and carelessly to deceive the doctor.
At the end of the dance, Lucia spoke briskly in order to evaporate the doctor’s suspicion. In no way did he want anyone in this locality to think he was grief because it would make it harder for him to escape.
The next time Lucia went to the piano to let Mrs
Jennings play, but Allan prevented her.
– After Pater comes my turn, isn’t it? Don’t you deny?
– If Mrs Jennings wants to continue playing, Lucia replied.
Yes, Mrs Jennings wanted, she started playing hambo, and Allan took
Lucia to dance.
They danced beautifully beautifully, the two, both of which were the best dancer. They both charmed each other about dancing and without changing their word they danced relentlessly, as long as the call lasted. When it ceased, they looked and grasped each other’s smiling eyes.
– It was dancing! got respectfully from Allan.
– That’s how it was! answered Lucia the same way.
“Ellen would have promised to devote to little Anna, so I would hold you all the remaining dance,” Allan explained.
– Have you promised to devote to Anna? asked Lucia kindly interesting.
– Yes, I have taken the assignment to teach him to dance tonight. He claims he doesn’t know and that it works best with me. She is a little sweetie, and I’m very in love with him tonight. But you you dance so that I am in love with you also.
Lucia laughed at her frankness.
“It is good that you shake Anna slightly,” he said with approval. I’ve never seen him as young as tonight. He is otherwise too serious for his age.
“No one ever misses,” Allan explained. And those girls are sad. Brita is, of course, forcing him to have fun, but that is not what the little saint does.
– You seem to know them well?
– I feel yes. From their birth. I live otherwise with their brother. We have a shared apartment in Uppsala.
– How does it work? You look so different.
– We are so, but – the extremes touch each other, as you know.
Now Irene came to them with praying eyes, watching Lucia.
– Oh, wouldn’t Aunt Lucia want to dance with me?
Lucia admitted with a smile.
– No, this is too crazy! Sergeant Uno, who had also come to the same thing as his sister, and did not seem to intend to allow this to displace himself.
– The next dance, if you like, promised Luc and turned away with her happy student.
After dancing, they sat on the couch, and Irene put her hand on Lucia’s armpit and glanced at her with a brilliant eye.
Mrs Clareus had come in during the dance and now came to her eldest daughter.
– Isn’t there enough gentlemen here because the women are dancing with each other? she asked her face with a smiley look.
– Yes, it is. But I would rather dance with Lucia’s aunt than a hundred gentlemen, Irene explained.
– Dumb girl! said Lucia cordially and sweeping her face with those fingers.
But he got up as if to stop that familiar moment.
Irenek rose up, though reluctantly, not pulling her hand off
Lucia’s arm.
– You must not forget that you are a mistress, Irene, said mother.
“They’re so much fun,” Irene said, looking around.
– No two, Lucia said, pointing to a couple of girls who sat together, apparently forced, and seemed abandoned.
At the same time, he pulled his arm out of Iren’s grip, and he who understood the call obeyed and went to the girls.
At the same time, Uno demanded his dance, but Lucia even turned to those girls, saying that he gave his dance to another of them. He said it in such a way that Uno could not be hurt, and although he reluctantly obeyed Lucia.
Mrs Clareus and Lucia stood silent for a while. The previous one looked at his children and then at Lucia, and even though the gaze didn’t say more than usual, however, Lucia got the impression that he should apologize for something.
– They have an impact on youth, Mrs Clareus pointed out with a voice that did not say whether she meant it for praise or reproach.
– I’m not even aware of the responsibility, said Lucia at a low, respectful voice.
Because of her delicate inner perception, she suddenly and with light-hearted clarity made sure that the rigid, cool surface of the mother’s heart envy that one’s mother’s eyes were more powerful than the mother’s own.
But can he do anything to it? Can children do anything about it? Lucia was overwhelmed by this mother who wanted to mow the warmth she had only had cool feelings. –
Mrs Sander had come with her mistress from the top library down to the hall to see her youth.
She didn’t like being danced, but she didn’t want to do anything to prevent her, because her husband didn’t see anything wrong with kids and young people who knew each other as well as these, spinning a little. Of course, he thought it was unnecessary, like all the interests, but he didn’t want to resist it when it comes to the home of others; Of course, in his own home it never came to the question.
Mrs Sander hadn’t been expecting anything but Brita would take part in the dance, because unfortunately she had a worldly and outward-looking mind; Of both of these, he had really waited for more seriousness and resistance.
Give dance to Allan Bentick. They laughed both, and Anna’s eyes shone, her cheeks glowing, and she looked so happy and lively that her mother hardly knew her.
– Is he now as world-like as Briton? thought Mrs Sander restlessly.
At the same time, Erik danced with Lucia Vilde and ignored her mother’s ignorant attention.
Mrs Sander was delighted with the boy’s home coming as much as she could rejoice at anything. But Erik had been so rare and gloomy after coming home that he had spread all that joy around, and that a mother who was heavy-minded had had a powerful effect. He had sighed for himself because of Erik’s gloom, for which reason he knew nothing. When he now saw him as youthful and still smiling after dancing, he felt himself more uneasy for his sake.
Didn’t he ever think of the dignity of his future calling because he was dancing? If she had even danced with Clareus or with the girls of Jennings she had known since childhood, but with that worldly Miss Vilde! It was so bad and dangerous that Mrs Sander felt she had to end it.
She went to find her husband.
– Dear Edgar, can you allow young people to start a new year of dancing and jockeys? he whispered.
– Dancing and Jerking? Sander repeatedly asked.
– It has been going on for hours at that top hall. And both Erik and Anna have been involved. Could we go home?
Sander seemed to think.
– What about the other then? he said delayedly, feeling the shepherd’s responsibility. Not more than they are going to move into a new year without the word of God.
– Are you going to hold the devotional moment? asked Mrs Sander brightening.
– That’s not what I’ve done. But maybe we could sing something together. Where is the hostess?
– In the hall.
It was descriptive to the rulers of this house that it was not Sander’s mind to turn to the host with his suggestions, even though he sat in the same room.
Mrs Clareus immediately accepted the proposal of the vicar and said to Lucia, who was sitting next to the piano, that she would no longer dance.
Calling paused, dancers stopped and let go. Parents came up from the ground floor rooms. Everyone’s eyes were directed at Sander, who took a few steps.
“The old year is coming to an end, and I suggest that we gather our thoughts to meet the new year in a more valuable way than dancing and amusing.
His voice fell to rest in a cheerful mind, and the room was silent.
Let us celebrate the solemn seriousness of the turn of the year, raising our thoughts to God and saluting the new year of grace that he gives us, continued to the vicar.
Lucia quietly put the dance casts out and picked up the choral book so that when the Templar had finished her temporary speech and mentioned the number of a stream, she was immediately ready.
Sitting on the couches and chairs and some gathered in the group around the piano. At that time, the atmosphere had changed from happiness to seriousness.
“The Old Year Has Ended
And The New Begin…”
Anna Sander stood in the group around the piano. She knew the stream from the outside and gave her gaze to slip out of the window. Out there, his dear country rested on New Year’s Eve, wooded mounds around lakes and rivers, illuminated by a bright moonlight. Sweden and the Swedish people, how he loves both! He was thinking of his friends in the near and dear places of all the loved ones in the hiding places of the forest and in the lakes of the lakes and the roaring waters of the river, and all who sang here with him. His emotional heart beats the warmest love for everything and everyone, and his young soul prayed to God, who was above all of them and pulled his love more than any other power. Unconsciously, he shed his heart to the song of heat and devotion,
It wasn’t strong and did not belong to the top, but Allan Bentick, who stood beside him, listened and looked at him. How did he sing! They had sung together before, but he never remembered hearing that voice before. Anna had got more than her hair for a bitch and long skirts for the two years she had been away. Not wanted to stop this mess. The old year took another moment, it had to stop singing and singing was a new greeting. So everyone wanted it.
Although there was a new year, it was possible to sing Christmas and Adventist weddings, those solemn, familiar ones, most of whom knew from the outside, at least enough to be able to follow those with the hymns.
Allan Bentick sang loudly, but it didn’t stop him from listening to Anna’s song and marveling at what was so fascinating.
“Ah my Lord, my Jesus …”
Allan wondered what the secret in that young, clear voice was. He sang the same song as Anna and the same words, but he felt that they were not singing the same thing.
Allan sang the tone he had learned and the words he knew from the outside – Anna sang the belief of her heart, her susceptibility. Its Allan dumbfounded, even though she couldn’t get it all out.
The old year went away, and instead the new fire hid the many hidden secrets that were now gathering in that great, beautiful room and singing together for the same song. Each was a world of its own, but the threads of their fate were more or less intertwined with each other, affecting more or less each other’s life. But none of them came to think.