Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/91

 down the verandah stairs, a pair of pointed patent leather shoes were visible below the edge of her dress. She had a pale blue shawl over her shoulders, loosely knotted at the breast; and perched on her reddish waving hair was an immense straw hat, turned up at the back with an agrafe.

"Can I just speak to you before you go, Mr Hansted?" she asked with somewhat forced gaiety, looking at him closely with twitching eyes. "Do you mind going with me to the chestnut avenue, I want to see if I can find some violets."

They went through the garden together. This, which, as well as the house, was an inheritance of the "Millionaire parson," with the many lawns, shrubberies, big stone vases, its long alleys, and artificially clipped privet hedges, was more like a nobleman's seat than a homely Parsonage—and Provst Tönnesen took a pride in keeping it up in its former grandeur as far as he was able. Over a wide ditch, which divided the garden at one end, was built a wooden bridge in the Chinese style, with dragon's heads and a bamboo roof,—and over this bridge Miss Ragnhild and Emanuel now walked.

"Well," said the latter after some minutes silence, "may I ask what it is you wish to say to me?"

She laughed a little.

"Are you so inquisitive?"