by a sudden passion of wrath at the man's intolerable
insinuations--only half understood, but sounding for that reason worse
than they were--and had done it herself. Since then she had not seen
him. By the agreement her uncle had made with him, he was entitled to
six months' notice, and would not leave until the winter, and she knew
she could not continue to refuse to see him; but how she dreaded the
next interview! And how uneasy she felt at the thought that the
management of her estate was entirely in the hands of a man who must now
be her enemy. Axel was equally anxious, when he heard what she had done.
It had to be done, of course; but he did not like Dellwig's looks when
he met him. He asked Anna to allow him to ride round her place as often
as he could, and she was grateful to him, for she knew that not only her
own existence, but the existence of her poor friends, depended on the
right cultivation of Kleinwalde. And she was so helpless. What creature
on earth could be more helpless than an English girl in her position?
She left off reading Maeterlinck, borrowed books on farming from Axel,
and eagerly studied them, learning by heart before breakfast long pages
concerning the peculiarities of her two chief products, potatoes and
pigs.

"He cannot do much harm," Axel assured her; "the potatoes, I see, are
all in, and what can he do to the pigs? His own vanity would prevent his
leaving the place in a bad state. I have heard of a good man--shall I
have him down and interview him for you?"

"How kind you are," said Anna gratefully; indeed, he seemed to her to be
a tower of strength.

"Anyone would do what they could to help a forlorn young lady in the
straits you are in," he said, smiling at her.

"I don't feel like a forlorn young lady with you next door to help me
out of the difficulties."

"People in these lonely country places learn to be neighbourly," he
replied in his most measured tones.

He had not again spoken of the Chosen since his walk with her through
the forest; and though he knew that Karlchen had been and gone he did
not mention his name. Nor did Anna. The longer she lived with her
sisters the less did she care to talk about them, especially to Axel. As
for Frau von Treumann's plans, how could she ever tell him of those?

And just then Letty, the only being who was really satisfactory, became
a cause to her of fresh perplexity. Letty had been strangely content
with her German lessons from Herr