There was sober silence for a few minutes, and then Mrs.
Rossitur asked who it was.
"His name is Didenhover."
"Oh, uncle Rolf, don't have anything to do with him!" exclaimed Fleda.
"Why not?"
"Because he lived with grandpa a great while ago, and behaved very ill. Grandpa had a great deal of trouble with him."
"How old were you then?"
"I was young to be sure," said Fleda, hanging her head, "but I remember very well how it was."
"You may have occasion to remember it a second time," said Mr.
Rossitur, drily, "for the thing is done. I have engaged him."
Not another word was spoken.
Mr. Rossitur went out after breakfast, and Mrs. Rossitur busied herself with the breakfast cups and a tub of hot water a work she never would let Fleda share with her, and which lasted in consequence long enough, Barby said, to cook and eat three breakfasts. Fleda and Hugh sat looking at the floor and the fire respectively.