Her father took my arm, and proposed adjourning to the garden with our cigars. I had nearly fled the field at this invitation, so much did I dread a _tête-à-tête_ with him; nothing on earth could have detained me but the expected secret meeting with Jettè, whose good genius I was to be. I felt that I could almost rather have faced his Satanic Majesty himself at that moment, had the choice between the two companions been mine; but what was I to do? There was nothing for it but to accompany my host quietly.
'Listen, my son,' said the old gentleman, when we had exhausted our first cigars; 'I cannot say I am much pleased at your having brought that Mr. Holm back with you. He is a very respectable young man, but ... Why should we encumber ourselves with him?... To speak out, you should have been the last person to have brought _him_ to this house.'
'_I!_ How so? I really had planned to make him one of my most intimate friends. Hannè said so much in his favour.'
'Hannè does not care a straw for him--she is only a child.'
'A child! and on the 12th of November she will be seventeen years old! No, no, uncle, girls give up thinking themselves children when they arrive at ten years of age.'
'But I tell you, Hannè does not care in the least for him; nor does he for her.'
'Very well, uncle, so much the better, for there is no sort of danger then in his coming here.'
'Danger! Oh! I don't look upon him as at all dangerous; but I can't bear to see him looking so woe-begone.'
'I shall soon enliven him. Only leave him to me, and you will see that he shall become quite gay. I will take him in hand if he can come here every day.'
'Confound the fellow! I must just tell you plainly out then--he is a great admirer of Jettè. Do you understand me now?'
'How I know that?... Well ... No matter how. Suffice it to say, I know it. Jettè cannot endure him, that I know also; but his sighs might make some impression on her, so it were better that he kept entirely away. Besides, if he gets no encouragement, his fancy will wear out. Don't you agree with me that he had better not come here?'
'I can't call it a sin to be in love with Jettè, for I am so myself; she is a girl that it would be impossible not to admire. If we were to drive away every one who was guilty of admiring her, we should be compelled at last to live as hermits.'