Another foul. Mrs. Molie said no more, merely smiling patiently.
"I can only say that my opinion is diametrically opposed to yours," the lawyer repeated. "But I did think," he went on, "that this was one thing I knew something about, however...."
Mrs. Molie got up and went out with her head bent, seemingly on the point of bursting into tears. The Associate Master sat still for a moment, and then followed her, whistling and putting on as brave a manner as though he felt quite easy in his mind.
"What's your opinion?" asked Mrs. Brede, turning to the doyen of the company, namely myself.
And as becomes a man of settled years, I replied:
"Probably there has been a little exaggeration on both sides."
Everybody agreed with this. But I could never have acted as a mediator, for I thought the Associate Master was right. In one's early seventies, one still has many pathetically young ideas.
The lawyer rounded off the discussion thus:
"Well, when all's said and done we have Switzerland to thank for being able to sit here at our ease in this comfortable mountain resort. We get tourists into the country on the Swiss model, and earn money and pay off our debts. Ask this man if he would have been willing to do without all we have learned from Switzerland...."
That evening Mrs. Brede asked,