Read "The Blue Anchor" by Hjalmar Soderberg online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
There was dancing in the salon, but in the darkened smoking-room sat several men who did not dance. The younger ones had white flowers in their buttonholes, the older ones had decorations. In the corner of a sofa sat a man a little apart from the others; he sat very silent and smiled as at a happy dream. His face was brown, but his forehead was white. His frock coat was as correct as anyone else's, and he had also a white flower in his buttonhole; but his left hand, which hung over the arm of the sofa, was tattooed with a blue anchor.
As a matter of fact it was not a ball; there had merely been a dinner, and afterwards there was dancing.