"What do you want it for?"
"Don't you think it might attract people to the place? Oh, well, perhaps it wouldn't."
And Paul withdrew.
Madder than ever. Some people see flies. Paul saw goldfish.
XX
The lawyer is constantly in Miss Torsen's company; he even swings her in the children's swing, and puts his arm around her to steady her when the swing stops. Solem watches all this from the field where he is working, and begins to sing a ribald song. Certainly these two have so ill-used him that if he is going to sing improper songs in self-defense, this is the time to do it; no one will gainsay that. So he sang his song very loud, and then began to yodel.
But Miss Torsen went on swinging, and the lawyer went on putting his arm round her and stopping her....
It was a Saturday evening. I stood talking to the lawyer in the garden; he didn't like the place, and wanted to leave, but Miss Torsen would not go with him, and going alone was such a bore. He did not conceal that the young woman meant something to him.
Solem approached, and lifted his cap in greeting. Then he looked round quickly and began to talk to the lawyer--politely, as became his position of a servant:
"The Danish gentleman is going to climb the peak tomorrow. I'm to take a rope and go with him."