MRS. BERNICK. No one at all, Karsten? BERNICK. No; you know there is not.—That they should descend upon me just at this moment! They are certain to make a scandal in one way or another—especially she. It is nothing less than a calamity to have such people in one’s family. MRS. BERNICK. Well, it’s not my fault that—— BERNICK. What is not your fault? That you are related to them? No; that’s true enough. MRS. BERNICK. And it wasn’t I that asked them to come home. BERNICK. Aha, there we have it! “_I_ didn’t ask them to come home; _I_ didn’t write for them; _I_ didn’t drag them home by the hair of their heads.” Oh, I know the whole story off by heart. MRS. BERNICK. [_Bursting into tears._] Oh, why are you so unkind? BERNICK Yes, that’s right; set to crying, so that the town may have _that_ to chatter about too. Stop this nonsense, Betty. You had better sit outside there; some one might come in. Perhaps you want people to see Madam with red eyes? It would be a nice thing indeed if it got abroad that——Ah! I hear some one in the passage. [_A knock._] Come in. [MRS. BERNICK _goes out to the verandah with her work._ AUNE _comes in from the right._ AUNE. Good-morning, Consul. BERNICK. Good-morning. Well, I suppose you can guess what I want with you? AUNE. Your clerk told me yesterday that you were not pleased with—— BERNICK. I am altogether displeased with the way things are going at the yard, Aune. You are not getting on at all with the repairs. The _Palm Tree_ should have been at sea long ago. Mr. Vigeland comes worrying me about it every day. He is a troublesome partner. AUNE. The _Palm Tree_ can sail the day after to-morrow. BERNICK. At last! But the American, the _Indian Girl_, that has been lying here five weeks, and—— AUNE. The American? I sort of understood that we was to do all we could to get your own ship out of hand first. BERNICK. I have given you no reason for such an idea. You should have made all possible progress with the American too; but you have done nothing. AUNE. The vessel’s bottom is as rotten as matchwood, Consul; the more we patch at it the worse it gets. BERNICK. That is not the real reason. Krap has told me the whole truth. You don’t understand how to work the new machines I have introduced—or rather, you _won’t_ work with them. AUNE.