I could see by the sun it was too early for the ladies' dinner-time, though well enough for me, seeing I took my dinner with Falkenberg at noon. So I drove on.
“Can't you stop?” they cried.
“I thought ... you don't generally have dinner till three....”
“But we're hungry.”
I turned off aside from the road, took out the horses, and fed and watered them. Had these strange beings set their dinner-time by mine? “Værsaagod!”
But I felt I could not well sit down to eat with them, so I remained standing by the horses.
“Well?” said Fruen.
“Thank you kindly,” said I, and waited to be served. They helped me, both of them, as if they could never give me enough. I drew the corks of the beer bottles, and was given a liberal share here as well; it was a picnic by the roadside—a little wayfaring adventure in my life. And Fruen I dared look at least, for fear she should be hurt.
And they talked and jested with each other, and now and again with me, out of their kindliness, that I might feel at ease. Said Frøken Elisabeth:
“Oh, I think it's just lovely to have meals out of doors. Don't you?”