"It isn't. It's about your pig-headed friend, James."
"James? What about him?"
"Just this, Oom Peter: I think he is interested in Kathrien."
"Who? James? Bah! You're dreaming. That's just like a lover. Thinks every one is trying to steal his sweetheart. Why, James is too much wrapped up in his work to care about anything else. His work and his crazy theories that he gets out of books. Interested in Kathrien? Just to show you how foolish you are to think that, he asked me not five minutes ago to transfer him to the Florida headquarters. And, even if he weren't so absorbed in the business, he'd never even presume to think of Kathrien. It's preposterous!"
"Is it?" said Frederik, quite unconvinced. "Yet I've reason to believe he has been making love to her."
There was a quiet certainty in his nephew's voice that caught Grimm's reluctant credence.
"We'll find out mighty soon," he declared. "Katje!"
"No, no!" expostulated Frederik. "It would be better not to bring her into it or give her the idea that——"
"Katje!"
"Yes, Oom Peter," answered the girl, hurrying in from the dining-room in response to the bellowed summons. "What's the matter?"