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and chalk-white stockings passes by in the company of a lady, by no means entirely young, whose lower body and legs are enclosed within a birdcage of crinoline, for which reason one cannot help but think first and foremost precisely of her lower body and legs. Her dress ruffles about her, the playful breeze toys with the pleated trim that has absorbed the dark colour of chlorophyll from the grass across which it has been drawn. She smiles while looking straight ahead with a firm expression that appears to Morten to be false or melodra­matic, but which nevertheless has prompted her gentleman to assume a rather fawning posture. The white-stockinged man seems almost to be silently begging for some favour. Miss Schultz and her sisters have wind of the drama. Breathlessly they watch the couple and take in the scene. Each time the gentleman comes up alongside her, the lady increases her pace, yet when he lags behind she walks more slowly until he catches up with her again.
    Once they are out of earshot, the three girls begin to twitter. They debate and argue as to the nature of the relationship between the young gentleman and the more mature lady. Morten can tell as he listens to them that they are by no means unused to reading novels of chivalric romance. He wonders if he should lend them his Moll Flanders , which he read in the winter. He considers it might shake them up a bit.
    What opinion has the student? says Abelone Schultz. I see he stands there smiling, as if in possession of better knowledge.
    Whatever I might imagine of the relationship between these people, I shall wisely keep it to myself.
    They tease him and call him Magister Stick-in-the-Mud. But when they walk on, Abelone puts her arm in his.
    A finery stall in Østergade sells intimate garments and perfumes for ladies. He purchases two flacons, one of lavender, the other of bergamot, and presents them to the maid of the printer’s house with a message that they are a gift to Miss Schultz. It is her sixteenth birthday. He has composed a brief letter and attached it to the parcel: Dear Miss Schultz, please accept this humble gift and may it remind you of the most obedient of all your admirers, id est stud. theol Morten Falck .
    The following day the gift is returned by the printer’s maid. He puts it aside. He has allowed himself to be carried away. He has revealed his intentions. The time is unripe. He must be patient. He regrets nothing. Now she knows, and the family Schultz know, where he stands. It feels liberating. It is as though he has kissed her, then passed his hand over her hip.
    He watches the door of the printer’s home. Abelone is in hiding, but her sisters are there, and Madame Schultz, too, spends time in the court­yard, fussing and yet in good humour. A person of cheerful disposition. He likes her and he is certain she is not unkindly disposed towards him. The two younger sisters conspicuously refrain from looking up at his window, where he sits reading in the window seat. It is plain from the manner in which they ignore him that they are keenly aware of his presence.
    Morten’s mother writes to him often from Lier. She, too, uses his former name, Morten Pedersen, until, in an angry letter, he instructs her to employ his new one. She does so. His father, however, continues to refer to him as stud. theol. Pedersen , and it is in this name, too, that he receives letters from the Procurator Gill. Yet it is his mother who writes most, once a week at least. She must spend considerable sums on the postage, both to himself and to Kirstine in Nakskov. She names with caution one or another girl who now has been confirmed or has reached a certain age, who is of sound constitution, diligent and meticulous, an obedient daughter to her parents, of good moral standing, etc. She keeps a careful eye on the parishes whose incumbents are of poor health and whose vacant living he might seek once he has become ordained.