"All right, lad," agreed Grimm. "Any time."
He looked fondly after the dapper figure.
"Isn't he a splendid, handsome, hustling young chap, Katje?" he demanded. "If only his mother had lived to see him now, wouldn't she have been proud of him? And what a complete little family we three make!"
"Surely. That's all there are of us--at present,--isn't it? I don't think I have made a miscount."
"James?" he queried sharply. "Why should I?"
"Why shouldn't you?" she retorted eagerly. "Oom Peter, if you don't mind my saying so, I think you're just a little unfair to James. He used to have dinner with us nearly every day. Can't you make him a little more at home--more like one of the family?"
"Why, you good, unselfish little girl!" applauded Grimm. "You think of everybody. James is----"
Hartmann came in with several newly typed letters to be signed, and Grimm turned to meet him with something akin to cordiality.
"James," said he, "will you have dinner with us to-day?"
"Why, yes," answered Hartmann, in pleased surprise. "Certainly. Thank you very much. Will you glance over these and sign them?" he added, wondering at the grateful smile Kathrien flashed at Peter as she passed into the dining-room and left the two men alone together.
Grimm, too, wondered a little at the warmth of the girl's smile.
"She has bloomed out lately like a rose," he mused as he looked over the letters the secretary proffered him.
"Yes, sir!" involuntarily agreed Hartmann.
"Yes, sir," replied Hartmann stiffly as he recovered his self-control.
"_Ach!_" murmured Grimm, as he signed letter after letter and passed them over to Hartmann for sealing. "What a grip she has taken on my heart! A good girl, James. A good little girl. And I've sheltered her, ever since she came to me, as I shelter my violets from the cold. That's as it should be, hey?"
"What's that?" bristled Grimm, looking up at the unexpected answer to the question that had seemed to him to require none. "What do you mean? Oh, speak out, man!" as the secretary hesitated. "Never be afraid to express an honest opinion."
"I mean just this. No one can shape any one else's life. All people should be made to understand that they are--free."
"Free? Nonsense! Katje's free. Free as air. Do you mean to tell me a girl should be more free than she is? We must think for young people who can't think for themselves. And no girl can."