"Yes," said the twins a little breathlessly, for the man's legs were long and they could hardly keep up with him.
"English?" said the man.
"Ye—es," said Anna-Rose.
"That's to say, practically," panted the conscientious Anna-Felicitas.
"What say?" said the man, still striding on. "I said," Anna-Felicitas endeavoured to explain, hurrying breathlessly after him so as to keep within reach of his ear, "practically."
"Ah," said the man; and after a silence, broken only by the pantings for breath of the twins, he added: "Mother with you?"
They didn't say anything to that, it seemed such a dreadful question to have to answer, and luckily he didn't repeat it, but, having got to the door they had been searching for, opened it and stepped into the bright light inside, and putting out his arm behind him pulled them in one after the other over the high wooden door-frame.
Inside was the same stewardess they had seen earlier in the afternoon, engaged in heatedly describing what sounded like grievances to an official in buttons, who seemed indifferent. She stopped suddenly when the man appeared, and the official took his hands out of his pockets and became alert and attentive, and the stewardess hastily picked up a tray she had set down and began to move away along a passage.
The man, however, briefly called "Hi," and she turned round and came back even more quickly than she had tried to go.
"You see," explained Anna-Rose in a pleased whisper to Anna-Felicitas, "it's Hi she answers to."