That is why I opposed it,
with the result that the inland line was resolved upon.
Hilmar: Yes, but surely that will not touch the towns about here.
Bernick: It will eventually touch our town, my dear Hilmar,
because we are going to build a branch line here.
Hilmar: Aha--a new scheme, then?
Rummel: Yes, isn't it a capital scheme? What?
Rorlund: Hm!--
Vigeland: There is no denying that it looks as though Providence
had just planned the configuration of the country to suit a
branch line.
Rorlund: Do you really mean it, Mr. Vigeland?
Bernick: Yes, I must confess it seems to me as if it had been the
hand of Providence that caused me to take a journey on business
this spring, in the course of which I happened to traverse a
valley through which I had never been before. It came across my
mind like a flash of lightning that this was where we could carry
a branch line down to our town. I got an engineer to survey the
neighbourhood, and have here the provisional calculations and
estimate; so there is nothing to hinder us.
Mrs.Bernick (who is still with the other ladies at the verandah
door): But, my dear Karsten, to think that you should have kept
it all a secret from us!
Bernick: Ah, my dear Betty, I knew you would not have been able
to grasp the exact situation.
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