They were already beyond Main Square and were approaching the Old Town.
When they got to the sidewalk where Sophie had found the ten crowns, she looked au-
tomatically down at the asphalt. And there, on exactly the same spot where she had
bent down and picked up the money, lay a postcard with the picture side up. The
picture showed a garden with palms and orange trees.
Sophie bent down and picked up the card. Hermes started growling as if he
didn’t like Sophie touching it.
The card read:
Dear Hilde, Life consists of a long chain of coincidences. It is not altogether
unlikely that the ten crowns you lost turned up right here. Maybe it was found on the
square in Lillesand by an old lady who was waiting for the bus to Kristiansand. From
Kris-tiansand she took the train to visit her grandchildren, and many, many hours later
she lost the coin here on New Square. It is then perfectly possible that the very same
coin was picked up later on that day by a girl who really needed it to get home by bus.
You never can tell, Hilde, but if it is truly so, then one must certainly ask whether or
not God’s providence is behind everything. Love, Dad, who in spirit is sitting on the
dock at home in Lillesand. P.S. I said I would help you find the ten crowns.
On the address side it said: “Hilde Moller Knag, c/o a casual passer-by...” The
postmark was stamped 6/15/90.
Sophie ran up the stairs after Hermes. As soon as Alberto opened the door, she
said:
“Out of my way. Here comes the mailman.”
She felt she had every reason to be annoyed. Alberto stood aside as she barged
in. Hermes laid himself down under the coat pegs as before.
“Has the major presented another visiting card, my child?”
Sophie looked up at him and discovered that he was wearing a different
costume. He had put on a long curled wig and a wide, baggy suit with a mass of lace.
He wore a loud silk scarf at his throat, and on top of the suit he had thrown a red cape.
He also wore white stockings and thin patent leather shoes with bows. The whole cos-
tume reminded Sophie of pictures she had seen of the court of Louis XIV.
“You clown!” she said and handed him the card.
“Hm ... and you really found ten crowns on the same spot where he planted the
card?”
“Exactly.”
“He gets ruder all the time. But maybe it’s just as well.”
“Why?”
“It’ll make it easier to unmask him. But this trick was both pompous and
tasteless. It almost stinks of cheap perfume.”
“Perfume?”
“It tries to be elegant but is really a sham. Can’t you see how he has the
effrontery to compare his own shabby surveillance of us with God’s providence?”
He held up the card. Then he tore it to pieces. So as not to make his mood worse
she refrained from mentioning the card that fell out of her exercise book at school.
“Let’s go in and sit down. What time is it?”
“Four o’clock.”
“And today we are going to talk about the seventeenth century.”
They went into the living room with the sloping walls and the skylight. Sophie
noticed that Alberto had put different objects out in place of some of those she had
seen last time.
On the coffee table was a small antique casket containing an assorted collection