Strange, how quiet it was in the shop to-day! Not a sound but Garner counting over the cash, putting the ten-shilling notes in bundles of ten, and the small silver coins in paper rolls.
Miss Rantzau was away, and had not even sent a message.
"Have you seen anything of my son to-day, Garner?"
Garner laughed and showed his teeth. "He--he--no. Isn't he down at the quay, then? No, I don't know...."
Holm perceived that there was something in the wind, and refrained from further inquiries.
A little later the maid came in: would Mr. Holm please come upstairs, there was a lady to see him.
It was Mrs. Rantzau. She was all in black and looked very handsome indeed. Holm could not help admiring her magnificent figure, and thought to himself that Hermansen certainly seemed to have made a better bargain here than recently with the Spaniard.
"I dare say you are surprised to see me here now," Mrs. Rantzau began. "But exceptional circumstances...." she flushed, and broke off in some confusion.
"Heard the news, my dear lady. Congratulations! You've found an excellent husband, a thorough----" he checked himself, hesitating between compliment and sincerity.
"You know my past, Holm, and you will not wonder at my seeking a safe haven after my troubled life--and I hope and believe he will never have reason to regret."
"Indeed not, my dear lady; he's a very lucky man if you ask me. And at his age, too----"
"I don't think he's any older than yourself, Holm," put in Mrs. Rantzau, with a smile.
"Well, perhaps not--but he looks it, anyway."
"There was one thing more, Mr. Holm. My daughter's future is more to me even than my own, and it is chiefly on her account that I have come."
"Aha, I thought as much. So you're in the plot as well, of course?"
"Yes, it _is_ a plot. First there's William turns as contrary as a rusty lock, then they set Miss Trap on to me, and now it's you!"
"Well--I came to tell you that the two young people love each other. Be good to them, Holm, and you will make your son and my daughter happy together."
"And by doing so I become a sort of relation of--of Banker Hermansen?"
"Hermansen and I as a sort of--well, what should we be? Can't be each other's half-uncles--twins-in-law. Bless my soul, it's really almost comical!"