uld walk
out of the little room, along the corridor, to her own room.

Marieken was just coming along the passage. Anna Maria stopped, and bade
her say to Fraeulein Rosamond that she was not coming to the table; she
had a headache, and wanted to be alone that evening.

The girl looked in alarm at the pale face of her mistress. "Shall I call
Brockelmann?" she asked anxiously.

Anna Maria made a negative gesture, and laid her hand on the door-knob,
and then turned her head. "Marieken!"

The girl came back.

"It is nothing--only go!" She then hastily turned away, and shut and
bolted her door at once.

"She wishes to be alone with her thoughts," remarked Aunt Rosamond at
the supper table, where she and Klaus sat, right and left of the absent
one's place. Klaus did not reply at once, but looked at that place and
said at length: "So it will always be, soon!" And the old lady nodded
sadly; she knew not what to reply, and a secret anxiety about the future
stole over her, since she had seen that Klaus still bore the old wound
which he had received many years ago. She had supposed it healed long
since.

The next morning Anna Maria went as usual, with her bunch of keys,
through kitchen and cellar. She was pale, and her orders sounded
shorter and less friendly than they had of late. Only to Klaus she gave
a friendly smile, but it was forced, and her eyes had no share in it.
She looked over accounts with him for two hours, and, though he was
distracted and restless, the results were perfectly correct. Aunt
Rosamond alone was alarmed at the girl's appearance, but she did not
venture to ask any questions. Anna Maria was as icily cold as often
heretofore.

The next day, toward evening, Klaus came into Aunt Rosamond's room. The
old lady had just hung up Felix Leonhard's portrait again, after
carefully making fast the broken cord.

"Well, who was right, Aunt Rose?" he asked. He was standing beside her,
and she saw that his face had grown very red, and that his whole being
was stirred.

"Right? In what, Klaus?"

"In your assertion about Anna Maria. She does not love him!"

"Did she say so? Oh, well, it doesn't follow at all that a girl has
spoken the truth, if she says she does _not_ love a certain person, does
not even like him. I have experienced the contrary a hundred times;
those who talk so hide a warm affection under cold words."

"Not this time, Aunt Rose. Anna Maria has definitely refused him!"

The old lady san