"Yer, he has been a sea cadet, they say, you know, and now he would learn fishing as his father is rich, they say, you know."
The commissioner had placed himself at the window, when the conversation commenced, and witnessed now how Miss Mary and the assistant were playing lawn tennis. He had even seen how her gown had lifted in the front every time she leaned backwards to serve the other's ball. Now he saw how the assistant jokingly bent down when the skirt drew up, just as though by gesture and mien to indicate that he saw something.
"Listen now," he said, "I have long thought that it would be of great service for the people's best economy, if there was a provision store, so that the people need not row to the city for their purchases, and it might even be possible, that the merchant could advance them provisions, and sell their fish. What does Mr. Olsson say about it?"
The preacher stroked his long chin whiskers, while his face expressed a mass of shifting desires and changes of mind.
The commissioner now saw through the window, how the assistant had climbed the pole of the lookout and swung horizontally out by his arms, while Miss Mary clapped her hands below him.
"Yes, say, Mr. Olsson, if one could get a provision store here, it would only do good."
"But see, the commonwealth will hardly permit it, unless one could get a storekeeper that could be relied on, I mean a person who...."
"We will take a religious man and let a share in the benefit go to the chapel fund; thus we get both the commonwealth and the home mission on our side."
The face of the preacher now cleared up.
"Yes, in such a way it may work!"