"
"But you think, then, Counsellor Bang is coquettish?"
"Not Bang--Bagger. Yes; for although he said he had this romantic
love for a fairy, he often does court to modest earthly ladies. He
is properly somewhat of a flirt."
"That is unbecoming an old man."
"Yes; but he is not old."
"Oh!" said Miss Hjelm, laughing: "I have only known one war
counsellor, and he was old; so I thought of all war counsellors as
old."
"Yes; but Counsellor Bagger is not war counsellor, but a real
Superior Court Counsellor."
"Oh, how earnest that is! And so he is in love with a fairy?"
"Yes: it is ridiculous!" said Miss Brandt, laughing. During this
conversation they had reached the house, and Miss Brandt
complained that something was yet pricking her ankle. They went
into Miss Hjelm's room, and here a thorn was discovered and taken
out.
"How pretty and cosy this room really is!" said Miss Brandt,
looking around. "In a situation like this one can surely live in
the country summer and winter. Out with us at Taarback it blows in
through the windows, doors, and very walls."
"That must be bad in a whirlwind."
"Yes--yes: still, it might be quite amusing when the whirlwind
carried such billets: not that one would care for them; yet they
might be interesting for a while."
"Oh, yes! perhaps."
"Yes: how do you think a young girl would like it, when there came
from Heaven a billet, in which one pledged himself to her for time
and eternity?"
"That isn't easy to say; but I don't believe the occurrence quite
so uncommon.
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