Where the deuce had he seen that face before?
Thereupon the walrus suddenly got up and stretched out his flipper.
“Why, devil’s in it if that isn’t little Modin!”
“Yes, I surely thought it was someone I knew. Good-day, Brother Axelson! Lord! but it’s hard to recognize folks out of their clothes.”
“Aye, your own dog barks at you when you’re naked. I’m scared to death of myself when I look at myself in a glass.”—Axelson surveyed his new-found acquaintance with the critical look of a doctor.—“You seem to be in good condition, Modin. Aren’t you going to plunge in?”
“No, thanks; I’m just enjoying a sun bath. I love to sit here like this and take in the special bath-house smell of water and sun-steeped wood. It has a holiday scent, don’t you think?—Well, do you know, I hadn’t a notion it was in this town you were a doctor. That’s how folks lose sight of each other.”
“Aye, I’ve stuck it out here these seventeen years now, you faithless little devil.—And you’ve taken over your father’s big antiquarian book business.”
“Oh, you know everything of course. The same horse’s memory as ever. I taught a while, but that didn’t suit me at all. And so when my father died”——
“Your catalog is always prized by connoisseurs.”
“The first assistant, old Salin, deserves the credit of that. He’s a faithful martinet. It’s really the etchings and engravings that interest me. There’s certainly a bad feeling among our regular customers because I can’t let the finest things go away from me. I’m here to look at the collection of the deceased banker. I was here once fifteen years ago, while I was still a teacher. I didn’t suspect then either that you were in the neighborhood. That visit is connected with an exquisite memory, a fleeting yet pervasive experience, which I can only compare with the fragrance of certain delicate perfumes.”