My instinct must have guided me there
during my sleep.
I ordered my usual repast of coffee and rolls. (I must have been
full of coffee and rolls by this time.) I had got the idea into my
head now that I was in Norway, and so I ordered them in broken
Scandinavian, a few words of which I had picked up during a trip
through the fiords last summer.
Of course, the man did not understand; but I am accustomed to
witnessing the confusion of foreigners when addressed in their
native tongue, and so forgave him - especially as, the victuals being
well within reach, language was a matter of secondary importance.
I took two cups of coffee, as usual - one for B., and one for myself-
-and, bringing them to the table, looked round for B. I could not
see him anywhere. What had become of him? I had not seen him, that
I could recollect, for hours. I did not know where I was, or what I
was doing. I had a hazy knowledge that B. and I had started off
together - whether yesterday or six months ago, I could not have said
to save my life - with the intention, if I was not mistaken, of going
somewhere and seeing something. We were now somewhere abroad -
somewhere in Norway was my idea; though why I had fixed on Norway is
a mystery to me to this day - and I had lost him!
