"And you advise me to do nothing, to wait?"
"Why not try a change of scene? A journey would probably drive some of the 'ologies' and 'isms' you object to out of her mind, and she would very likely come home prepared to settle down."
Fru Boyesen sighed. She was not satisfied with the result of the interview—it had been so different from what she had expected. She took her leave, thinking to herself, "Poor man, one can see that he doesn't know much of the practical side of life! How could he, being a bachelor?"
Doctor Tommsen, watching her substantial figure retreat down the street, drummed on the window and said to himself:
"What fools these women are! And the old ones who ought to know better are always trying to drag the girls into the same miserable mistakes they have made themselves." He was sorry for Ragna—"They will probably end by making a fool of her too, one girl can't stand out against the whole State of Society!"
CHAPTER IX
Fru Boyesen went to Fru Bjork for consolation and over a cup of coffee discussed the Doctor's refusal.
Fru Bjork was more at a loss than her friend to understand Ragna's indifference to the advantages of the married state, and she held up her hands in horror at Fru Boyesen's account of Dr. Tommsen's speeches—it may be said that they lost nothing in the telling. Sentence by sentence she repeated them, punctuating them with indignant sniffs, and appreciative sips at her cup.
Fru Bjork listened, her fat hands clasped on her rotund person, her cap awry over her kindly face, her eyes wide and round with dismay.