"When Johannes sometimes asked for
permission to
go out, it was usually denied him. But, on occasion his
father proposed as a substitute that they
walk up and down the
room hand in
hand. [...] The proposal was accepted and it was left entirely to Johannes to
decide where they should go. Off they went then, right out the front entrance, out to a neighbouring estate or to the
seashore, or simply though the
streets, exactly as Johannes could have wished; for his father managed
everything. While they
strolled in this way up and down the floor of his
room, his father told him of all they saw. They greeted
other pedestrians; passing
wagons made a din around them and drowned out his father's voice; the comfits in the pastry
shop were more inviting than ever."
From an early work by Kierkegaard, cited in Eduard Geismer,
Sören Kierkegaard (Göttingen) 1929 p.12-13
