Hamar. I think I will go and have a swim too. Or perhaps I will wait till nearer lunch-time.
Signe (as before). So as to have a better appetite--appetite--appetite.
(MRS. TJAELDE comes in from the right, walking slowly.)
Mrs. Tjaelde. Yes, I don't know what to order.
Signe (as before). For dinner, I suppose you mean?
Mrs. Tjaelde. Yes, your father writes to me that Mr. Finne is coming.
Signe (speaking). The most tiresome person possible, of course.
Mrs. Tjaelde. How would boiled salmon and roast chicken do?
Mrs. Tjaelde. (With a sigh). There is nothing that we didn't. There is so little choice in the market just now.
Mrs. Tjaelde. Oh, these meals, these meals!
Hamar (yawning). They are the best thing in life, anyway.
Signe. To eat, yes--but not to cook; I never will cook a dinner.
Mrs. Tjaelde (sitting down at the table). One could put up with the cooking. It's the having always to think of something fresh!
Hamar. Why don't you get a chef from one of the hotels, as I have so often advised you?
Mrs. Tjaelde. Oh, we have tried that, but he was more trouble than it was worth.
Hamar. Yes, because he had no invention. Get a French chef!
Mrs. Tjaelde. Yes, and have to be always beside him to interpret!--But I am no nearer this dinner. And lately I have been finding such difficulty in getting about.
Hamar. I have never in my life heard so much talk about meals as I have in this house.
Mrs. Tjaelde. You see, you have never been in a prosperous business-man's house before. Our friends are mostly business-men, of course--and most of them have no greater pleasures than those of the table.
Mrs. Tjaelde. Are you wearing _that_ dress to-day?
Mrs. Tjaelde. You have worn a different one every day.
Signe. Well, if Hamar is tired of both the blue one and the grey one, what can I do?
Hamar. And I don't like this one any better than the others.
Signe. Indeed!--Then I really think you had better order me one yourself.
Signe. Yes, mother--Hamar and I have made up our minds that we must go back to town. [Note: There would be nothing contrary to Norwegian ideas of propriety in Signe's proposal. In Norway an engaged couple could travel alone; and the fiancée would go to stay in the house of her future husband's relations.]