ut there is always a loss that
cannot be covered--_ach_, Frau Dellwig, good-evening--you see we have
taken possession of your house. To have no stables and probably no
horses just when the busy time is beginning is terrible. Poor Axel.
There--now you are tidy. Wait, let me fasten your cloak and cover up
your pretty dress. Is Letty to come too?"

"Oh--if she likes. Why doesn't the carriage come?"

"It will be much better if Letty goes to bed," said the princess.

"Oh!" said Letty.

"It is long past her bedtime, and she has no hat, and nothing round her.
Shall we not ask Frau Dellwig to send a servant with her home?"

"_Aber gewiss_----" began Frau Dellwig.

But Anna was out again on the steps, was shutting out the flaming sky
with one hand while she strained her eyes into the darkness of the
corner where the coach-house was. She could hear Fritz's voice, and the
horses' hoofs on the cobbles, and she could see the light of a lantern
jogging up and down as the stable-boy who held it hurried to and fro.
"Quick, quick, Fritz," she cried.

"_Jawohl, gnaediges Fraeulein_," came back the answer in the old man's
cheery, reassuring tones. But it was like a nightmare, standing there
waiting, waiting, the precious minutes slipping by, terrible things
happening to Axel, and she herself unable to stir a step towards him.

"Take me with you--let me come too," pleaded Letty from behind her,
slipping her hand into Anna's.

"Then tie a handkerchief or something round your head," said Anna, her
eyes on the lantern moving about before the coach-house. Then the
carriage lamps flashed out, and in another moment the carriage rattled
up.

It was a ghostly drive. As the tops of the pine-trees swayed aside they
caught glimpses of the red horror of the sky; and when they got out into
the open Anna cried out involuntarily, for it seemed as if the whole
world were on fire. The spire of Lohm church and the roofs of the
cottages stood out clear and sharp in the fierce light. The horses, more
and more frightened the nearer they drew, plunged and reared, and old
Fritz could hardly hold them in. On turning the corner by the parsonage
they were not to be induced to advance another yard, but swerved aside,
kicking and terrified, and threatening every moment to upset the
carriage into the ditch.

Anna jumped out and ran on. The princess, slower and more bulky, was
helped out by Letty and followed after as quickly as she could. In the
road and