I turned round now and picked it up, said thank you, and walked
on.
"You're very quick to notice things of no account," says the engineer. "A
lout's red-spotted rag.... Come, let's go and sit in the summer-house."
"It's shut up at night," says Fruen. "I dare say there's somebody in
there."
After that I heard no more.
My bedroom is up in the loft in the servants' quarters, and the one open
window looks out to the shrubbery. When I come up I can still hear voices
down there among the bushes, but cannot make out what is said. I thought
to myself: why should the summer-house be shut up at night, and whose idea
could it be? Possibly some very crafty soul, reckoning that, if the door
were always kept locked, it would be less risky to slip inside one evening
in good company, take out the key, and stay there.
Some way down along the way I had just come were two people walking up--
Captain Bror and the old lady with the shawl. They had been sitting
somewhere among the trees, no doubt, when I passed by, and I fell to
wondering now if, by any chance, I could have been talking to myself as I
walked, and been overheard.
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