...of prophesy

The thought or notion reached the house on the square. It found a foothold in the servants' hall before it rose to the first floor and was here felt to be of extreme importance. The servants' hall finished by accepting Malli; it even silently closed a ring round the house's young lady-to-be, who owned only one frock and three shifts, and who sang so sweetly.

The thought or notion came up the stairs and into the drawing room of the paintings of majestic ships, and filled it with pregnant silence. It had reached high in its course; in here it was the future itself.

[Tempests, Dinesen, I.]