But as the time wore on he kept filling Salve's glass unconsciously as it were, and getting apparently more and more drunk himself, until he several times spilt the contents of his own glass on the floor.

He became very talkative, recalling incident after incident of their life together.

"I shall never forget you," he cried, with open-hearted impulsiveness, "never!" And as he repeated the word, there was a gleam of suppressed feeling of some kind or other in his eye.
Salve's attention was preoccupied at the moment.

He had heard two voices speaking Norwegian by the window at his back, and it made his heart knock against his ribs--it was so long since he had heard his mother-tongue.

They were two men belonging to timber ships, and one of them, very red and excited, was singing the praises of one of the girls in the other room.
"Ah!" broke in the other, a Tonsberger, "you should have seen handsome Elizabeth in 'The Star' at Amsterdam.