'BooksI am afraidthey are not ready for. Picturespictures are harmonizing; I am going to get you some; I would like to put a picture in every house. What sort? I have thought about it and failed to decide.'
'Do I want harmonizing in that sense?' Hazel asked with a laugh.
'You want all sorts of things. Go on.'
'Wellfor the picturesI would not get them all alike. It destroys one's sense of possession.'
'True. But the more the variety, the greater the difficulty.'
'What are your nations?'
'Swedes and Germans, a few Irish, a sprinkling of Americans and
English.'
'Good pictures of animals, I should think,' said Hazel, going deep into the matter; 'and of ships,and of children. Englishmen would like King Alfred burning the cakes, and Canute at the sea, and I suppose the queen in her royal robes, and the battle of Trafalgar. Then there are bits of the Rhine, and Cathedrals, and Martin Luther, and a Madonna or two, for your Vaterland people,and mountains and ice and reindeer' Hazel broke off with a blush. 'How I run on!'
'We will have them all, for future use,' said Rollo smiling. 'The time will come, but I believe it is not yet. The people are hardly ready. It wouldn't be good economy. You do not understand that subject, I know, but you will excuse me for alluding to it. Now for business.'
Drawing Wych Hazel away from the breakfast table to another table which stood in the room, he opened a bank cheque book which lay there.