the other uneasily, and held
on tight to the rebellious thumb, for the tall lady who had got out
first was fixing her with a stare that chilled her blood. The tall lady,
who was very tall and thin, and had round unblinking dark eyes set close
together like an owl's, and strongly marked black eyebrows, said
nothing, but examined her slowly from the tip of the bow of ribbon
trembling on her head to the buckles of the shoes creaking on her feet.
Ought she to offer to shake hands with her, or ought she to wait to be
shaken hands with, Letty asked herself distractedly. Anyhow it was
rather rude to stare like that. She had always been taught that it was
rude to stare like that.

Anna had forgotten all about her, and only remembered her when they were
in the drawing-room and she had begun to pour out the coffee. "Oh,
Letty, where are you? This is my niece," she said; and Letty was at last
shaken hands with.

"Ah--she keeps you company," said the baroness. "You found it lonely
here, naturally."

"Oh no, I am never lonely," said Anna cheerfully, filling the cups and
giving them to Letty to carry round.

"How pleasant the air is to-day," observed Frau von Treumann, edging her
chair away from the window. "Damp, but pleasant. You like fresh air, I
see."

"Oh, I love it," said Anna; "and it is so beautiful here--so pure, and
full of the sea."

"You are not afraid of catching cold, sitting so near an open window?"

"Oh, is it too much for you? Letty, shut the window. It is getting
chilly. The days are so fine that one forgets it is only April."

Anna talked German and poured out the coffee with a nervous haste
unusual to her. The three women sitting round the little table staring
at her made her feel terribly nervous. She was happy beyond words to
have got them safely under her own roof at last, but she was nervous.
She was determined that there should be no barriers of conventionality
from the first between themselves and her; not a minute more of their
lives was to be wasted; this was their home, and she was all ready to
love them; she had made up her mind that however shy she felt she was
going to behave as though they were her dear friends--which indeed, she
assured herself, was exactly what they were. Therefore she struggled
bravely against her nervousness, addressing them collectively and
singly, saying whatever came first into her head in her anxiety to say
something, smiling at them, pressing the princess's cakes on