IN THE STATE OF DENMARK 109 



with a fine simplicity) was our destination ; to reach 

 it was indeed the final effort of the branch railway, 

 which there expired in a kind of lethargic despair, 

 among weedy grasses and sand-heaps and dogs and 

 children. It had the air of a settlement about its 

 few cottages, ranged among young pine plantations, 

 in dubious effort to be a street; the interrogation 

 that its name expressed was the perpetual sentiment 

 of the place, in its uncertain growth, its general isola- 

 tion. Everything was bending before the strong, 

 sandy sea-breeze, but the sea itself was strangely 

 calm, as if it had gained a philosophy of stillness 

 during centuries of the wind's oppression. 



Apart from the cottages, on the edge of the soft 

 and quiet beach, stood a square villa, as wind-beaten 

 and almost as lonely as Stevenson's " Pavilion on the 

 Links " ; and through the rustling, straining shrubs 

 of its pleasure-ground we came, full sail before the 

 wind, to the hospitable door that was waiting to give 

 us shelter. 



The sudden repose and quiet within were almost 

 stunning, as was also the realisation that we were 

 launched irrevocably into Danish private life, and 

 must cope with it as best we might. More than 

 that, we were immediately to dine out, so our hostess 

 informed us in her broken English, that was so 

 courageous and so piquant compared with our un- 

 gainly flounderings in German. It was now three 

 o'clock, therefore it was time to dress for dinner. 

 With sinking hearts we did so, and, as well as I can 

 remember, it was on this occasion that we first noticed 

 that our hair was beginning to fall out in handfuls; 

 it may have been an effect of Danish air, but it was 

 on this afternoon of stress and brain-pressure that 

 it first became a prominent fact. Even the red-and- 

 white setter here, in spite of her good manners, 



