“Well! What makes you look so cross?”
“I’ve had a rotten day.”
“I’m sorry; but it wasn’t my fault, was it? You needn’t be cross at me.”
“It was your fault, in a way. You might have told me what there is to do in this place.”
“Oh, but there isn’t anything! I’ll take you for a walk after supper, if you want.”
So after supper, when Mrs. Van Brink had gone back to the kitchen, and her husband, in stocking feet, sat reading his newspaper, Esther and Tommy set out again.
“Shall we go right out in the country?” Esther asked him. “Or would you rather go through the village and see some of the fine houses?”
Tommy preferred the country.
They turned north, followed the dark and quiet street past all the little houses, and into a road soft with dust, under the black shadow of great trees, with a sweet breeze blowing from the meadows.
“One day’s enough for you,” said Esther. “How would you like to spend years here?”