"Yees, it have gone out; it will soon return. He is not here."
Waited half an hour longer; rang again.
"Where is my money?"
"Yees, strachs. He shall all right, strachs."
"But I am very tired; I wish to go to bed."
"Yees, it shall be kommen."
Waited another half-hour,—it was now quarter of eleven; wrote on a bit of paper, "I have gone to bed; cannot take the money to-night. Have it ready for me at six in the morning." Rang, and gave it to the waiter, ejaculating, "Bureau;" and pointing downstairs, shut the door on him and went to bed. The last thing I heard from him, as I shut the door, was, "Strachs, strachs!" That means "Immediately;" and there is a Norwegian proverb that "when the Norwegian says 'Strachs,' he will be with you in half an hour."
At twenty-five minutes before six I was in the dining-room, bonneted, all ready; no sign or symptom of breakfast. I went to the little room beyond, where the waiters are to be found. There was the one who speaks least English. "Oh, goodness!" said I, "where is Wilhelm?" Wilhelm being the one mainstay of the establishment in the matter of English, and the one who had waited upon me during all my stay.
"Ya, ya. Wilhelm here; soon will be kommen."
"But I must have my breakfast; I leave the house in half an hour."