Page:Karl Gjellerup - Minna, A novel - 1913.djvu/65

 upstairs and quick steps coming down. I hastily turned the leaves, and resolutely drew an architrave with one division with the triglyph over; the lines were not very clear, for my hand was shaky, and the guttae I forgot altogether. But whether the palpitation of my heart came from what I had read, or from fear of having been discovered, I cannot tell.

Minna sat down next to me with her needlework, and seemed very satisfied to find me so engrossed in my drawing. The air had been sultry all day, and clouds had gathered. Hardly had I finished my two sketches before we heard loud thunder, and big dark spots soon appeared on the stone steps. I helped to take off the table-cloth, and then we went up to the old people. We but seldom occupied their sitting-room before tea-time, for being a corner one, facing south and west with two windows on each side, it was, on sunny days, unbearable during the afternoon.

Between two of the windows stood a small, hard, upholstered sofa, and between the other two windows, a table. Over this hung a common oleograph of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince, and under them Hertz had hung one of his special treasures, which followed him after the fashion of the Penates; it was a small portrait of Kant, a Königsberger-print, faintly coloured, and from his own time. The whole figure of the philosopher was shown standing near a long-legged writing desk, and so stooping and humpbacked, that one would say an invisible hand was pushing his face down to the paper; while from the little grey wig protruded a bit of pigtail, over the high coffee-coloured coat collar. This quaint and old-fashioned picture, with its mildew, spots that came from old age, and flat mahogany frame, gave a certain cosiness to the low room, which was increased by the small window panes, and by an enormous