"Now they'll be coming," he said. "If only they would leave us in peace,"
he added.

By this he meant he regretted the good, carefree days that he and his
household had enjoyed till now; but in a few weeks a motor road would be
opened in the neighboring valley, and then it was a question whether the
tourist traffic might not be deflected there. His wife and Josephine were
a little afraid it would be; but he himself had held as long as possible
to the opinion that all their regular visitors who had come again year
after year would remain faithful. No matter how many roads and motor cars
they might have in other places, they could not get the peaks of the Tore
range anywhere but here.

The master of the house had felt so confident that once more he had much
timber lying by the wall of the barn, ready to be built into new cottages,
with six new guestrooms, a great hall with reindeer horns and log chairs,
and a bathroom. But what was the matter with him today; was he beginning
to doubt? "If only they would leave us in peace," he said.

A week later Mrs. Brede arrived with her children; she had a cottage to
herself, as in previous summers. So she must be rich and fashionable, this
Mrs. Brede, since she had a cottage to herself. She was a charming lady,
and her little daughters were well-grown, handsome children. They curtsied
to me, making me feel, I don't know why, as though they were giving me
flowers. A strange feeling.

Then came Miss Torsen and Mrs. Molie, who were both to stay for the
summer. They were followed by Schoolmaster Staur, who would stay a week.
Later came two schoolmistresses, the Misses Johnsen and Palm, and still
later Associate Schoolmaster Hoey and several others--tradesmen, telephone