Mrs. Söderblad tilted her head, smiling dreamily. “Do you know,” she said, perhaps to Enid or to Mrs. Roth, “that until one hundred years ago Norway was a colony of Sweden?” The Norwegians erupted like a batted hive. “Colony!? Colony??” “Oh, oh,” Inga Nygren hissed, “I think there is a history here that our American friends deserve to—” “This is a story of strategic alliances!” Per declared.
