answering admirably, was to pay debts incurred and go; to play while
one was young, for the gravity of life made itself felt quite soon enough.
Marriage was nothing but a civil institution for the protection of the
children. There was plenty of time for it.

Theodore replied at some length in a letter imbued with true Christian
sentiment, which the lieutenant left unanswered.

After passing his first examination in the spring, Theodore was
obliged to spend a summer at Skofde, in order to undergo the cold
water cure. In the autumn he returned to Upsala. His newly-regained
strength was merely so much fresh fuel to the fire.

Matters grew worse and worse. His hair had grown so thin that the
scalp was plainly visible. He walked with dragging footsteps and
whenever his fellow students met him in the street, they cut him as if
he were possessed of all the vices. He noticed it and shunned them in
his turn. He only left his rooms in the evening. He did not dare to go
to bed at night. The iron which he had taken to excess, had ruined his
digestion, and in the following summer the doctors sent him to
Karlsbad.

On his return to Upsala, in the autumn, a rumour got abroad, an ugly
rumour, which hung over the town like a black cloud. It was as if a
drain had been left open and men were suddenly reminded that the town,
that splendid creation of civilisation, was built over a sea of
corruption, which might at any moment burst its bonds and poison the
inhabitants. It was said that Theodore Wennerstroem, in a paroxysm of
passion had assaulted one of his friends, and the rumour did not lie.