"Yes, we can!" said Mrs. Dawes. "We have this whole afternoon."
"I shall be delighted to help," said Jörgen Thiis.
Now Mary bestowed a friendly look on him, before mentioning the price which Alice had advised her to offer for the Dutch coast landscape her father wished to buy. She then went off to begin her own packing.
The four met again before the hotel dinner at half-past seven. Mary came into the room looking tired. Jörgen Thiis went up to her and said:
"I hear that you have made Frans Röy's acquaintance, Miss Krog?"
Her father and Mrs. Dawes were listening attentively. This showed that Jörgen must have been talking with them on the subject before she entered. Every new male acquaintance she made was a source of anxiety to them. Mary coloured; she felt herself doing so, and the red deepened. The two were watching.
"I have met him at Miss Clerc's," replied Mary. "She and her mother spent several summers in Norway, and were intimate with his family there; they belong to the same town. Is there anything more you wish to know?"
Jörgen Thiis stood dismayed. The others stared. He said hastily: "I have just been telling your father and Mrs. Dawes that we younger officers consider Frans Röy the best man we have. So I spoke with no unfriendly intention."
"Nor did I suspect you of any. But as I myself have not mentioned the acquaintance here, I do not think that the subject ought to be introduced by strangers."
In utter consternation Jörgen stammered that, that, that he had had no other intention in doing so than to, to, to....