“You’ve pawned my best trousers?” cried Pelle, so startled that he loosed his hold.
“Yes, by God, that’s what I did! You can look for yourself—there’s no need to get so hot about it! You can’t eat me, you know. That goes without saying. Yes, that’s about it. One just mustn’t get excited!”
“You’re a scoundrelly thief!” cried Pelle. “That’s what you are!”
“Now, now, comrade, always keep cool! Don’t shout yourself hoarse. Nothing’s been taken by me. Pipman’s a respectable man, I tell you. Here, you can see for yourself! What’ll you give me for that, eh?” He had taken the pawnticket from his pocket and held it out to Pelle, deeply offended.
Pelle fingered his collar nervously; he was quite beside himself with rage. But what was the use? And now Hanne and her mother had come out over yonder. Hanne was wearing a yellow straw hat with broad ribbons. She looked bewitching; the old lady had the lunch-basket on her arm. She locked the door carefully and put the key under the doorstep. Then they set out.
There was no reasoning with this sot of a Pipman! He edged round Pelle with an uncertain smile, gazed inquisitively into his face, and kept carefully just out of his reach. “You’re angry, aren’t you?” he said confidingly, as though he had been speaking to a little child. “Dreadfully angry? But what the devil do you want with two pairs of trousers, comrade? Yes, what do you want with two pairs of trousers?” His voice sounded quite bewildered and reproachful.
Pelle pulled out a pair of easy-looking women’s shoes from under his bed, and slipped out through the inner door. He squeezed his way between the steep roof and the back wall of the room, ducked under a beam or two, and tumbled into the long gangway which ran between the roof- buildings and had rooms on either side of it. A loud buzzing sound struck suddenly on his ears. The doors of all the little rooms stood open on to the long gangway, which served as a common livingroom. Wrangling and chattering and the crying of children surged together in a deafening uproar; here was the life of a bee-hive. Here it’s really lively, thought Pelle. To-morrow I shall move over here! He had thought over this for a long time, and now there should be an end of his lodging with Pipman.