I.
Miss Thyra went and called into the speaking-tube:
'Will Trofast's cutlets be ready soon?'
The maid's voice came up from the kitchen: 'They are on the window-sill cooling; as soon as they are all right, Stine shall bring them up.'
Trofast, who had heard this, went and laid himself quietly down upon the hearthrug.
He understood much better than a human being, the merchant used to say.
Besides the people of the house, there sat at the breakfast-table an old enemy of Trofast's—the only one he had. But be it said that Cand. jur. [Footnote: Graduate in law.] Viggo Hansen was the enemy of a great deal in this world, and his snappish tongue was well known all over Copenhagen. Having been a friend of the family for many years, he affected an especial frankness in this house, and when he was in a querulous mood (which was always the case) he wreaked his bitterness unsparingly upon anything or anybody.
In particular, he was always attacking Trofast.
'That big yellow beast,' he used to say, 'is being petted and pampered and stuffed with steak and cutlets, while many a human child must bite its fingers after a piece of dry bread.'
This, however, was a tender point, of which Dr. Hansen had to be rather careful.