We're going to try it to-morrow."
"Oh, Peer!" she said breathlessly, gazing at him.
"It's a good thing that I had connections abroad," he went on. "There's
one man coming from an English firm, and another from America. It ought
to be a big business."
The morrow came. Merle stood looking after her husband as he drove off,
his hat on the back of his head, through the haze that followed the
night's rain. But there was no time to stand trembling; they were to
have the strangers to dinner, and she must see to it.
Out in the field the machine stood ready, a slender, newly painted
thing. A boy was harnessing the horses.
Two men in soft hats and light overcoats came up; it was old Uthoug,
and the Bank Manager. They stopped and looked round, leaning on their
sticks; the results of the day were not a matter of entire indifference
to these two gentlemen. Ah! here was the big carriage from Loreng, with
the two strangers and Peer himself, who had been down to fetch them from
the hotel.
He was a little pale as he took the reins and climbed to his seat on
the machine, to drive it himself through the meadow of high, thick
timothy-grass.
The horses pricked up their ears and tried to break into a gallop, the
noise of the machine behind them startling them as usual at first, but
they soon settled down to a steady pace, and the steel arm bearing the
shears swept a broad swath through the meadow, where the grass stood
shining after the rain.
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