The girl sat down on the sofa, at the farther end, and went on with a maudlin tenderness in her voice: 

“Why are you like that—­a man like you?  I wouldn’t now for money, whatever you offered me.  Can’t you see I’m in love with you?  Or d’you suppose perhaps a girl—­a girl in a place like this—­can’t love?  Ah, but she can, and more than any of the other sort, maybe.  I’d like to love a real man just for once—­I’ve had enough of beasts.  Stay with me to-night—­won’t you...?”

Olof shuddered in disgust.

“Drink!” he cried.  “Drink, and don’t sit there talking nonsense.”

Then again a revulsion seized him, and with a feeling of despair and weakness, he went on: 

“I can’t stay here, I must go—­I must go in a minute.  Never mind.  Drink.”

“Oh, let’s drink, then,” said the girl bitterly, and, rising, emptied her glass.  “Drink—­yes, and drink and drink—­’tis the only thing when once you’re—­here.”  She sank down into a seat.  “Night and day, morning and night—­there’s none of us could stand it if it wasn’t for that stuff there.  Ho, the world’s a mad place—­what a fool I am!”

She burst into tears, and fell forward with her arms on the table.

Olof felt more miserable than before.  The blood was pulsing in his temples, and something choking in his throat, as he looked at the sobbing figure.

“I’ll tell you what this place is,” she said, looking up between sobs.  “’Tis hell—­and in hell you’re always wanting something to wet the tip of your tongue—­I’ve read that somewhere, haven’t I?  Oh, oh...!” She fell to sobbing again.

Olof felt he could bear it no longer.  He would have liked to comfort her, but his tongue was dry, he could not speak.

Then suddenly the girl jumped up and struck the table with her fist, shaking the things on the tray.  “What the hell am I snivelling about—­’twon’t make it any better.”  She took the bottle of beer, filled a tumbler and drank it off at a draught, then flung the glass crashing against the wall behind the stove.

“Puh!  Now I’ve got that wretched fit again.”  She stood in the middle of the room, looking round.  “I can’t help it, I get like that every now and then.  Wait a bit, and I’ll bring you better company.  A real good girl—­she’s younger than me, and only just beginning, but she’s lovely, lovely as an angel.  Only don’t go and fall in love with her, or I’ll be jealous.”

“No!  Stay where you are!” Olof would have stopped her, but she was out of the door in a moment.  He rose to his feet, his head was throbbing, and he could hardly stand.

“Here you are—­here’s the beauty!”

A bright-eyed girl, young and slightly built, stood in the doorway smiling.

Olof started as if he had seen a ghost, the blood seemed to stand still in his veins; a cold weight seemed crushing him like an iceberg.

“You—­Gazelle!” he cried in horror.