he did it with such
unmistakable devotion that for the first time she wondered uneasily
whether their pleasant friendship were not about to come to an end.

"Don't be too kind," she said, drawing her hands away and trying to
smile. "I--I feel so stupid to-day, and want to cry dreadfully."

"Well then, I should do it, and get it over."

"I did do it, but I haven't got it over."

"Well, don't think of it. How is the baroness?"

"Just the same. The doctor thinks it serious. And she has no
constitution. She has not had enough of anything for years--not enough
food, or clothes, or--or anything."

She went quickly across to the coffee table to hide how much she wanted
to cry. "Have some coffee," she said with her back to him, moving the
cups aimlessly about.

"Don't forget," said Axel, "that the poor lady's past misery is over now
and done with. Think what luck has come in her way at last. When she
gets over this, here she is, safe with you, surrounded by love and care
and tenderness--blessings not given to all of us."

"But she doesn't like love and care and tenderness. At least, if it
comes from me. She dislikes me."

Axel could not exclaim in surprise, for he was not surprised. The
baroness had appeared to him to be so hopelessly sour; and how, he
thought, shall the hopelessly sour love the preternaturally sweet? He
looked therefore at Anna arranging the cups with restless, nervous
fingers, and waited for more.

"Why do you say that?" she asked, still with her back to him.

"Say what?"

"That when she gets over this she will have all those nice things
surrounding her. You told me when first she came, that if she really
were the poor dancing woman's sister I ought on no account to keep her
here. Don't you remember?"

"Quite well. But am I not right in supposing that you _will_ keep her?
You see, I know you better now than I did then."

"If she liked being here--if it made her happy--I would keep her in
defiance of the whole world."

"But as it is----?"

She came to him with a cup of cold coffee in her hands. He took it, and
stirred it mechanically.

"As it is," she said, "she is very ill, and has to get well again before
we begin to decide things. Perhaps," she added, looking up at him
wistfully, "this illness will change her?"

He shook his head. "I am afraid it won't," he said. "For a little while,
perhaps--for a few weeks at first while she still remembers your
nursing, and then--why, the old sel