to buy. She then went off to begin her own packing.

The four met again before the hotel dinner at half-past seven. Mary came
into the room looking tired. Joergen Thiis went up to her and said:

"I hear that you have made Frans Roey's acquaintance, Miss Krog?"

Her father and Mrs. Dawes were listening attentively. This showed that
Joergen must have been talking with them on the subject before she
entered. Every new male acquaintance she made was a source of anxiety to
them. Mary coloured; she felt herself doing so, and the red deepened.
The two were watching.

"I have met him at Miss Clerc's," replied Mary. "She and her mother
spent several summers in Norway, and were intimate with his family
there; they belong to the same town. Is there anything more you wish to
know?"

Joergen Thiis stood dismayed. The others stared. He said hastily: "I have
just been telling your father and Mrs. Dawes that we younger officers
consider Frans Roey the best man we have. So I spoke with no unfriendly
intention."

"Nor did I suspect you of any. But as I myself have not mentioned the
acquaintance here, I do not think that the subject ought to be
introduced by strangers."

In utter consternation Joergen stammered that, that, that he had had no
other intention in doing so than to, to, to....

"I know that," Mary replied, cutting short the conversation.

They went down to dinner. At table Joergen as a matter of course returned
to the subject. It could not be allowed to drop thus. All Frans Roey's
brother officers, he said, regretted that he had exchanged into the
engineers. He was a particularly able strategist. Their military
exercises, both theoretical and practical, had provided him with
opportunities to distinguish himself. Joergen gave instances, but the
others did not understand them. So he went on to tell anecdotes of Frans
Roey as a comrade, as an officer. These were supposed to show how popular
and how ready-witted he was. Mary declared that they chiefly showed how
boyish he was. Thereupon Joergen said that he had only heard the stories
from others; Frans Roey was older than he.

"What do _you_ think of him?" he suddenly asked in a very innocent
manner.

Mary did not answer immediately. Her father and Mrs. Dawes looked up.

"He talks a great deal too much."

Joergen laughed. "Yes; but how can he help that--he who has so much
strength?"

"Must it be exercised upon us?"

They all laughed, and the strain which had be