Ragna picked out an orange at random and laid it on the lady's plate,—the interruption was not unwelcome to her.
"Ah, that is very nice indeed, my dear. Thank you so much! And are you quite sure it is the very best? Well then I know you will like to peel it for me!"
Astrid leant across the table, saying,
"I'll peel it for you while Ragna eats her luncheon."
"Thank you, my dear," said the old lady, a little stiffly.
"You are very kind, but I think the other young lady would have done it more carefully. Young folk are so apt to be inconsiderate, nowadays!" She sighed heavily. Presently she addressed herself to Fru Bjork.
"Don't you think that young people are apt to be inconsiderate nowadays?" she inquired raising her voice. Astrid winked at Ragna; the old lady was their pet antipathy; Astrid had christened her the "Old Woman of the Sea." She always came to the table first and left it last, and managed to keep her neighbours busily employed most of the time.
Fru Bjork answered slowly, a little streamer of salad waving at the corner of her mouth.
"I don't agree with you; I have not found them inconsiderate."
"Then you have been more fortunate than I. I must say, however, that the young men are worse than the young women. Only the other day I asked a young man to give me the piece of chicken in a fricassee, and he gave me the neck."