not greatly outrage the feelings of those who do not themselves possess
any coal except an empty bag, to see a man who permits himself to own
two or three hundred thousand sacks letting wild beasts loose to guard
his coal mountain, and then going to bed after having written on the
gate: "Watch-dogs unfastened at dusk"? Is not that very provoking and
very dangerous to Society?'

'Oh, good God and Father! He is a regular _sans-culotte_!' cried old
grandmother.

The majority gave vent to mutterings of displeasure; he was going too
far; it was no longer amusing. Only a few still laughingly exclaimed:
'He does not mean a word of what he says; it is only his way. Good
health, Hansen!'

But the host took the matter more seriously. He thought of himself, and
he thought of Trofast. With ominous politeness, he began:

'May I venture to ask what you understand by a reasonable relation
between a crime and its punishment?'

'For example,' replied Dr. Viggo Hansen, who was now thoroughly roused,
'if I heard that a merchant possessing two or three hundred thousand
sacks of coal had refused to allow a poor creature to fill his bag, and
that this same merchant, as a punishment, had been torn to pieces by
wild beasts, then that would be something that I could very easily
understand, for between such heartlessness and so horrible a punishment
there is a reasonable relation.'

'Ladies and gentlemen, my wife and I beg you to make yourselves at home,