If only he could go with Meilby. Get away out of this hole, with its hypocrites and scoundrels, its patent-shoed prophets and broadcloth deacons, away to America....
Yes; Egholm felt he must go. Not to America, of course--that was beyond him. But go somewhere. Just a few miles away. Knarreby, for instance, or somewhere thereabout. Meilby's camera would keep him above water, wherever he chose to commit himself to the waves--himself, that is. As for his family, well, he could always send some money home.
Anna was still up when he got back. He sat down and commenced telling her about the meeting. Also, that he was going away. He grew excited again, but she did not seem to take in all he was saying. There was something strange about her this evening....
She was still moving about when he rolled himself in the bedclothes and laid his weary head on the pillow. But suddenly a fresh quiver of raw pain went through her. She staggered to the bed and dropped.
"Oh ... Egholm, it's coming. You'll have to--go and fetch her now. You know where she lives...."
Beyond her pain and fear, she felt for one brief moment a blessed sense that this was _her_ hour; she was to be the centre of importance for once. It was a victory.
Her husband, on his part, felt no share in anything victorious. He roused her quickly to her senses.
"It'll have to keep till to-morrow," he said in an offended tone. "You surely don't mean to send me running about now in the middle of the night?"
Egholm suffered considerably that night. A couple of women whom he did not remember to have seen before came up to assist the midwife, and took possession of the place, relegating him--the master--to the status of a slave. One handed him a bucket, indicating simply that it was to be emptied in the dustbin in the yard. He was not accustomed to such errands, but went down the dark stairs meekly. He had barely returned, when, shaken as he was, they bade him run at full speed to the chemist's. He looked round helplessly for Hedvig and Sivert, but the children had already been safely lodged with Eriksens' down below, out of the way. Egholm went. He took it like a man. True, he wept, but he did not scream aloud, as did his wife over her part.