It was
trying work, but HE was always in the vein, and ready to take the
rough with the smooth. In all respects the young madcap was up to
the standard, so that day and night passed in a ceaseless whirl,
which left every one but himself breathless. The glorious month at
Hellebergene had done good. He was drawn into endless jovial
adventures, so strange, so audacious, that one would have staked
one's existence that such things were impossible in Christiania.
But great dryness begets thirst. He was in the humour of a boy who
has got possession of a jam-pot, whose mouth, nose, and hands are
all besmirched. It is thus that ladies like children best; then
they are the sweetest things in the world.
Like a tall, full-grown mountain-ash covered by a flock of
starlings, he was the centre of a fluttering crowd. It only
remained for him to be deified, and this too came to pass. One day
he visited several factories, giving a hint here, another there
(he had great practical knowledge and a quick eye) and every hint
was of value.
At last in a factory of something the same description as the one
in France where he had been the means of economising half the
motive power, he suggested a similar plan; he saw on the spot how
it could be effected.
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