Gregers Daa received the lady at the foot of the outside stairs in a garb which plainly showed he had not expected her visit at that moment. He led her with a bewildered air into his study, where, before her arrival, he had been occupied. Everything in this room bore witness to an old bachelor's uncomfortable home. An ancient-looking hound was stretched on the sofa, and gazed in evident astonishment at the intruder without vacating his place. The dust lay thick on the sills of the window, on the chairs, tables, and bookcases; the air was redolent of tobacco-smoke; books, plants, and weapons were lying in dire confusion about the room.
The Baroness's ironical smile, and the somewhat sneering manner in which she glanced round at the various articles in the study, seemed to open Gregers's eyes to its untidy condition. He stammered an apology, and opened a door leading to a large room close by, but the lady declined entering it.
'Let us stay here,' she exclaimed. 'The one room is as good as the other for what we have to talk about.'
She removed a bundle of papers from a high-backed easy-chair, placed herself in it, and motioned to Gregers to sit down also.
The sun was shining brightly through the window, the soft breeze was swaying the branches of a large elm-tree, with their fresh light-green leaves, backwards and forwards outside, the sparrows were chirping under the roof; farther off was heard the song of the larks as they soared over old Buggé's Hald,[[2]] the ruins of which were to be seen from the window, and were glittering in the sun.
Presently the lady spoke.
'I come to you, general, on the same errand, relative to which you lately called on me, and I bring you my entire acceptance of the proposal you did me the honour to make respecting a marriage between you and my daughter.
Gregers Daa's tall figure drew itself up in military style; he bowed, and said:
'You have, then, communicated my wishes to your daughter, dear madam?'
'I did so on the very same day that you called on us.'