looking out of the window at the parched garden, the drooping
lilac-bushes, the hazy island across the water. The wind had dropped,
and a gray film had drawn across the sky. At the bottom of the garden,
under a chestnut-tree, Miss Leech was sewing, while Letty read aloud to
her. The monotonous drone of Letty's reading, interrupted by her loud
complaints each time a mosquito stung her, reached Axel's ears as he
stood there in silence. A grim struggle was going on within him. He
loved Anna with a passion that would no longer be hidden; and he knew
that he must somehow hide it. He was so certain that she did not care
about him. He was so certain that she would never dream of marrying him.
And yet if ever a woman needed the protection of an all-enfolding love
it was Anna at that moment "That child down there has made a pretty fair
amount of mischief for a person of her age," he burst out with a
vehemence that startled Anna.

"What child?" she said, coming up behind him and looking over his
shoulder.

He turned round quickly. The feeling that she was so close to him tore
away the last shred of his self-control. "You know that I love you," he
said, his voice shaking with passion.

Her face in an instant was colourless. She stood quite still, almost
touching him, as though she did not dare move. Her eyes were fixed on
his with a frightened, fascinated look.

"You know it. You have known it a long time. Now what are you going to
say to me?"

She looked at him without speaking or moving.

"Anna, what are you going to say to me?" he cried; and he caught up her
hands and kissed them one after the other, hardly knowing what he did,
beside himself with love of her.

She watched him helplessly. She felt faint and sick. She had had a
miserable day, and was completely overwhelmed by this last misfortune.
Her good friend Axel was gone, gone for ever. The pleasant friendship
was done. In place of the friend she so much needed, of the friendship
she had found so comforting, there was--this.

"Won't you--won't you let my hands go?" she said faintly. She did not
know him again. Was it possible that this agony of love was for her? She
knew herself so well, she knew so well what it was for which he was
evidently going to break his heart. How wonderful, how pitiful beyond
expression, that a good man like Axel should suffer anything because of
her. And even in the midst of her fright and misery the thought would
not be put from her t