"So that's where he's gone?" he said. "Well, let him stay there, for all I care!"
The manufacturer cracked jokes to the very end. Of course he was a little depressed by the farewells, too, but he had to keep his family's courage up. His wife stood holding one of his arms with both hands, and the children clung to his other arm.
"I can't salute you," the manufacturer said to us, smiling. "I'm not allowed to say good-bye."
The children rejoiced at this and cried, "No, he can't have his arm back; Mummy, you hold him tight, too!"
"Come, come!" the father said. "I've got to go to Scotland, just a short trip. And when you come home from the mountains, I'll be there, too."
"Scotland? What are you going to Scotland for?" the children asked.
He twisted round and nodded to us.
"These women! All curiosity!" he said.
But none of his family laughed.
He continued to us: