Tomasine asked him to sit down. She inquired if he had any other intention, than to stay with her. "No, he wished to stay, if Fru Kurt would allow him." She could depend on him, then? "Yes, that she could." The first thing she had to ask him was not to call her Fru Kurt any longer, but Fru Rendalen, and to get the others to do the same. Their eyes met. Hers shone uncertainly behind her spectacles; his in wide open astonishment. But when he saw that her glasses were gradually dimmed by the tears, which could not find a free course, and that her flat nose worked until the spectacles slipped down on to her cheek, he hastened to say, "Very good. That shall be done." She took off her glasses, wiped her eyes first, and them afterwards, and began, after a pause, with the next question. "Dear Berg," she said, and put on her glasses, "could you not, quite quietly, so that no one would notice, have all these portraits destroyed--indeed, all the pictures, for I cannot always distinguish them? Have them all burnt, or disposed of in some way, so that they do not remain here and as soon as you can manage it. Do you understand me?" "Yes, Frue, but ..." "What do you mean?" "It would be rather difficult if no one is to see." She considered for a while. "Even if it is noticed, it may be done all the same, Berg." "Very good. Then of course it shall be done." And done it was, with an infernal smell of burnt canvas and burnt leather, and a general smell of burning. A soft breeze drove it one afternoon all over the town, the smoke drifting almost to the works, out by the river-banks. She then invited her father, with all his family, to come up to her. That was done at once. She handed over all the housekeeping to old Mariane, and let her have what help she wanted. The rest of the family lived in the rooms behind her own. Soon afterwards an advertisement appeared in the local paper: FRU TOMASINE RENDALEN _Will resume her Instructions in English, French, and German_. _Information to be obtained at_ "_The Estate_." She changed her name with all legal formalities. Besides her classes, of which she had as many as she wished, she studied book-keeping, and soon herself began to keep the accounts of the house, garden, and dairy. At the same time she began to learn a little about the working of the business, the accounts of which she kept. She wished to qualify herself to undertake it. Perhaps she would never have to do so, but it gave her present occupation. It left no time for brooding; that was the main thing. She was so tired every evening, that she slept the moment her head was on the pillow, and, like all thoroughly healthy people, she was wide awake directly she opened her eyes, and was into her bath the next instant.