He grew quite genial towards his pupil, and praised him more than was properly his due. When they had finished with their brainwork for the evening, he said anxiously:
“But, promise me you don’t go selling them without letting me know.”
Meilby would bear it in mind.
“Yes, but suppose you forgot?”
“Why, we’ll be none the less friends for that,” said Meilby, with an amiable smile.
“You’ll get nothing out of him, you see,” said Anna when he had gone. “It’ll be just the same with him as with young Karlsen, when he came to learn English, too. Huh! It was you that learned something that time, if you ask me.”
“He’s an artful one,” said Egholm, with a laugh. “He tricked the doctor when he went to be examined. But, after all—what’s a trifle like that when a man stands firm on the rock of truth?”
“Do you think Meilby does? You think it’s for any good he’s going running off to America like that?”
Egholm, law-abiding man, paled at the thought, but said, with an attempt at liveliness: