suppose these relatives should all be male?

These were grave questions; so grave that she was quite at a loss how to
answer them. And then she felt that somebody was looking at her; and
raising her eyes, she saw Axel on the mossy path quite close to her.

"So deep in thought?" he asked, smiling at her start.

Anna wondered how it was that he so often went through the forest. Was
it a short cut from Lohm to anywhere? She had met him three or four
times lately, in quite out of the way parts. He seemed to ride through
it and walk through it at all hours of the day.

"How is your potato-planting getting on?" she asked involuntarily. She
knew what a rush there was just then putting the potatoes in, for she
did not drive every day about her fields in a cart without springs with
Dellwig for nothing. Axel must have potatoes to plant too; why didn't he
stay at home, then, and do it?

"What a truly proper question for a country lady to ask," he said,
looking amused. "You waste no time in conventional good mornings or
asking how I do, but begin at once with potatoes. Well, I do not believe
that you are really interested in mine, so I shall tell you nothing
about them. You only want to remind me that I ought to be seeing them
planted instead of walking about your woods."

Anna smiled. "I believe I did mean something like that," she said.

"Well, I am not so aimless as you suppose," he returned, walking by her
side. "I have been looking at that place."

"What place?"

"Where Dellwig wants to build the brick-kiln."

"Oh! What do you think of it?"

"What I knew I would think of it. It is a fool's plan. The clay is the
most wretched stuff. It has puzzled me, seeing how very poor it is, that
he should be so eager to have the thing. I should have credited him with
more sense."

"He is quite absurdly keen on it. Last night I thought he would never
stop persuading."

"But you did not give in?"

"Not an inch. I said I would ask you to look at it, and then he was
simply rude. I do believe he will have to go. I don't really think we
shall ever get on together. Certainly, as you say the clay is bad, I
shall refuse to build a brick-kiln."

Axel smiled at her energy. In the morning she was always determined
about Dellwig. "You are very brave to-day," he said. "Last night you
seemed afraid of him."

"He comes when I am tired. I am not going to see him in the evening any
more. It is too dreadful as a finish to a happy day."