n dark and rainy; but now the sky, like a
taut canopy of pale-blue silk, rose in shimmering purity over sea and
land, and the sun's disk, beflecked and surrounded by cloud-strips shot
with red and gold, was rising impressively out of the sea, which with
its flickering ripples seemed to quiver and to glow beneath it ... So
the day began, and in bewildered happiness Tonio Kroeger flung himself
into his clothes, breakfasted downstairs on the verandah before any one
else, swam some distance out into the Sound from the little wooden
bath-house, and then walked for an hour along the shore. When he
returned, several wagons that looked like omnibuses were stopping
before the hotel, and from the dining-room he could see that not only
in the adjoining living-room, where the piano stood, but also on the
verandah and the terrace in front of it, a great company of people,
dressed in provincial style, were sitting at round tables and consuming
beer and sandwiches amid lively conversation. There were whole families
of old and young people, and even a few children.

At the second breakfast (the table was loaded down with cold viands,
smoked, salted, and baked) Tonio Kroeger inquired what was going on.

"Guests," said the fish-dealer. "Picnickers and dancers from Elsinore.
Aye, God help us, we shan't be able to sleep this night. There will be
dancing, dancing and music, and it is to be feared that it will last a
long time. It is a family gathering, picnic and reunion at once, in
short a subscription dance or something of the sort, and they are going
to enjoy the fine day. They have come by boat and wagon, and now they
are lunching. Later they will go on across country, but in the evening
they will come back, and then there will be dancing in the hall here.
Yes, damn it and curse it, we shan't close an eye ..."

"That will be a nice change," said Tonio Kroeger.

Hereupon nothing further was said for some time. The hostess grouped
her red fingers, the fish-dealer blew through his right nostril in
order to get a little air, and the Americans drank hot water and pulled
long faces over it.

Then on a sudden this happened: _Hans Hansen and Ingeborg Holm went
through the hall._--

Tonio Kroeger, comfortably weary after his bath and his rapid walk, was
leaning back in his chair, eating smoked salmon on toast; he sat facing
the verandah and the sea. And suddenly the door opened and the two
entered hand in hand--sauntering and without haste