Part 9 (2/2)

So they attended to a few minor matters.

”Are you going to town?” asked the lawyer.

”No,” Paul replied; ”only down to the village. I want to see if I can get the people there to co-operate on a few ideas of mine: a telephone and automobile service and so on.”

”Good luck!” said the lawyer.

So the lawyer sat drafting plans while the rest of us went about our own affairs. Josephine went to Solem and said:

”Will you go and sow the field by the river?”

”Has Paul said so?” he asked.

”Yes,” she replied.

Solem went very unwillingly. While he was drawing the harrow, Josephine went down to him and said:

”Harrow it once more.”

What a brisk little thing she was, with far more forethought than the men!

She looked bewitching, for all her hard work. I have seen her many times with her hair tumbled, but it didn't matter. And when she pretended that none but the maids milked the goats and did outside work, it was for the good name of the house. She had learned to play the piano for the same reason. The mistress of the house helped her n.o.bly, for both women were thoughtful and industrious, but Josephine was everywhere, for she was light as a feather. And the chaste little hands she had!

”Josephine, Josefriendly!” I called her wittily.

XV

Our dark beauty, Miss Torsen, was now seriously considering taking her departure. She was healthy enough in any case, so she did not need a stay in the mountains on that account, and if she was bored, why should she stay?

But a minor event caused her to stay.

In their lack of occupation, the ladies at the resort began to cultivate Solem. They ate so much and grew so fat and healthy that they felt a need to busy themselves with something, and to find someone to make a fuss over. And here was the lad Solem. They got into the habit of telling one another what Solem had said and what Solem believed, and they all listened with great interest. Solem himself had grown spoiled, and joked disrespectfully with the ladies; he called himself a great chap, and once he had even bragged in a most improper way, saying:

”Look, here's a sinful devil for you!”

”Do you know what Solem said to me?” asked Miss Palm. ”He's chopping wood and he's got a bandage on his finger, and it keeps getting caught in the wood and bothers him, poor fellow. So he said: 'I wish I had time to stop so I could chop this blasted finger right off my hand!'”

”Tough, isn't he?” said the other ladies. ”He's quite capable of doing it, too!”

A little later I pa.s.sed the woodshed and saw Mrs. Brede there, tying a fresh bandage on Solem's finger.... Poor lady! She was chaste, but young.

The days have been oppressively warm for some time now, with the heat coming down in waves from the mountain and robbing us of all our strength.

But in the evenings we recovered somewhat, and busied ourselves in various ways: some of us wrote letters or played forfeit games in the garden, while others were so far restored that they went for a walk ”to look at nature.”

Last Sunday evening I stood talking to Solem outside his room. He had on his Sunday clothes, and seemed to have no intention of going to bed.

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