hat if she had happened to look like the baroness
or Fraeulein Kuhraeuber, while inwardly remaining exactly as she was, he
would not have broken his heart for her. "Oh, let me go----" she
whispered; and turned her head aside, and shut her eyes, unable to look
any longer at the love and despair in his.

"But what are you going to say to me?"

"Oh, you know--you know----"

"But you are so sorry always for people who suffer----"

"Oh, stop--oh, stop!"

"No, I won't stop; here have I been condemned to look on at you
lavishing love on people who don't want it, don't like it, are wearied
by it--who don't know how precious it is, how priceless it is, and how I
am hungering and thirsting--oh, starving, starving, for one drop of
it----" His voice shook, and he fell once more to covering her hands
with kisses that seemed to scorch her soul.

This was very dreadful. Her soul had never been scorched before.
Something must be done to stop him. She could not stand there with her
eyes shut and her hands being kissed for ever. "_Please_ let me go," she
entreated faintly; and in her helplessness began to cry.

He instantly released her, and she stood before him crying. What a
horrible thing it was to lose her friend, to be forced to hurt him. "I
never dreamt that you--that you----" she wept.

"What, that I loved you?" he asked incredulously; but more gently,
subdued by her deep distress. His face grew very hopeless. She was
crying because she was sorry for him.

"I don't know--I think I did dream that--lately--once or twice--but I
never dreamt that it was so bad--that you were such a--such a--such a
volcano. Oh, Axel, why are you a volcano?" she cried, looking up at him,
the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Why have you spoilt everything? It
was so nice before. We were such friends. And now--how can I be friends
with a volcano?"

"Anna, if you make fun of me----"

"Oh no, no--as though I would--as though I could do anything so
unutterable. But don't let us be tragic. Oh, don't let us be tragic. You
know my plans--you know my plans inside out, from beginning to end--how
can I, how _can_ I marry anybody?"

"Good God, those women--those women who are not happy, who have spoilt
your happiness, they are to spoil mine now--ours, Anna?" He seized her
arm as though he would wake her at all costs from a fatal sleep. "Do you
mean to say that if it were not for those women you would be my wife?"

"Oh, if only you wouldn't be tragic-