This was a new turn to the course of events, and one, more over, that he had never once contemplated.

Britta watched him amusedly.
"Will you leave any message for them when they return ?" she asked.
"No," said the minister dubiously.

"Yet, stay; yes! I will! Tell the Froeken that I have found something which belongs to her, and that when she wishes to have it, I will myself bring it." Britta looked cross.

"If it is hers you have no business to keep it," she said brusquely.

"Why not leave it,--whatever it is,--with me ?" Mr.Dyceworthy regarded her with a bland and lofty air.
"I trust no concerns of mine or hers to the keeping of a paid domestic," he said.