Ragna sat down in her place, removing her gloves as she did so. She poured herself a glass of water, but her hand shook and the water streamed over the table cloth. Fru Bjork, seeing it, said kindly, "My dear, you should not run up the stairs so fast,--it is bad for the heart. You are too young to think about such things, but when you are my age you will know." Ragna blushed, thinking of the real reason of her excitement, and the good lady continued anxiously: "And how flushed your face is, my dear! Oh really, really, you must be more careful!" She was interrupted by Ragna's other neighbour, an old Swedish lady, whose long nose seemed to rest on her chin and that again on her voluminous bosom tightly sheathed in striped silk, and adorned by a cameo brooch and a frill of lace that had seen fresher days. She laid her mittened hand on Ragna's arm, and said: "My sweet one, will you choose an orange, the very nicest one, for me? My poor eyes are so bad that I am afraid to trust them." She had drawn the fruit dish over to her and appeared to be trying the efficacy of her nose in selecting fruit. Ragna picked out an orange at random and laid it on the lady's plate,--the interruption was not unwelcome to her. "Ah, that is very nice indeed, my dear. Thank you so much! And are you quite sure it is the very best? Well then I know you will like to peel it for me!" Astrid leant across the table, saying, "I'll peel it for you while Ragna eats her luncheon." "Thank you, my dear," said the old lady, a little stiffly. "You are very kind, but I think the other young lady would have done it more carefully. Young folk are so apt to be inconsiderate, nowadays!" She sighed heavily. Presently she addressed herself to Fru Bjork. "Don't you think that young people are apt to be inconsiderate nowadays?" she inquired raising her voice. Astrid winked at Ragna; the old lady was their pet antipathy; Astrid had christened her the "Old Woman of the Sea." She always came to the table first and left it last, and managed to keep her neighbours busily employed most of the time. Fru Bjork answered slowly, a little streamer of salad waving at the corner of her mouth. "I don't agree with you; I have not found them inconsiderate." "Then you have been more fortunate than I. I must say, however, that the young men are worse than the young women. Only the other day I asked a young man to give me _the_ piece of chicken in a fricassee, and he gave me the neck." Astrid stifled a wild giggle in her serviette. The old lady turned to her. "Are you choking? Get someone to thump your back! But there has been much worse--" she again trained her eye on Fru Bjork,--"just think, last night I never closed an eye, for two thoughtless young men who had the room next to mine, were packing up to go, and they dragged their heavy boxes about and made such a noise that I couldn't sleep at all! It was most inconsiderate of them towards one so much older and so far from strong!"