“I would do anything,” said Frithiof. “Sweep a crossing if necessary.”
They all laughed.
“Many people say that vaguely,” said Mr. Boniface. “But when one comes to practical details they draw back. The mud and the broom look all very well in the distance, you see.” Then as a bell was rung in the hall: “Let us have tea first, and afterward, if you will come into my study we will talk the matter over. We are old-fashioned people in this house, and keep to the old custom of tea and supper. I don’t know how you manage such things in Norway, but to my mind it seems that the middle of the day is the time for the square meal, as they say in America.”
If the meal that awaited them in the dining-room was not “square,” it was at any rate very tempting; from the fine damask table cloth to the silver gypsy kettle, from the delicately arranged chrysanthemums to the Crown Derby cups and saucers, all bespoke a good taste and the personal supervision of one who really cared for beauty and order. The very food looked unlike ordinary food, the horseshoes of fancy bread, the butter swan in its parsley-bordered lake, the honeycomb, the cakes hot and cold, and the beautiful bunches of grapes from the greenhouse, all seemed to have a sort of character of their own. For the first time for weeks Frithiof felt hungry. No more was said of the unappetizing subject of the dearth of work, nor did they speak much of their Norwegian recollections, because they knew it would be a sore subject with him just now.
“By the way, Cecil,” remarked Mr. Boniface, when presently a pause came in the general talk, “I saw one of your heroes this morning. Do you go in for hero-worship in Norway, Herr Falck? My daughter here is a pupil after Carlyle’s own heart.”
“We at any rate read Carlyle,” said Frithiof.
“But who can it have been?” exclaimed Cecil. “Not Signor Donati?”
“The very same,” said Mr. Boniface.
“But I thought he was singing at Paris?”
“So he is; he only ran over for a day or two on business, and he happened to look in this morning with Sardoni, who came to arrange about a song of his which we are going to publish.”