htly troubled as he
looked at her. "You will have to brush up a bit, you know, when
Christina goes to Zurich. You are going to be left in charge of the
house for a week or so."

Anna pressed her hands nervously together. She felt that the house would
suffer greatly under her guidance; but then, she should have her father
all to herself in her aunt's absence, and she should be freed from those
scathing rebukes which made her feel all the more clumsy and helpless
when they were uttered in her father's presence.

George Fasch, however, had of late become very much aware of his
daughter's awkwardness, and secretly he was troubled by the prospect of
her aunt's absence. He was a kind man and an affectionate father, but he
objected to Gretchen's unaided cookery, and he had therefore resolved to
transact some long-deferred business in Zurich during his sister's stay
there. This would lessen the number of his badly-cooked dinners at home.

"I shall start with Christina," he said--"some one must go with her to
Pardisla; and next day I shall come home by Malans, so you will have to
meet me on Wednesday evening at the old place, eh, Anna?"

She nodded and smiled, but she felt a little disappointed. She
reflected, however, that she should have her father alone for some days
after his return.

Christina was surprised to see how cheerful the girl looked when she
came indoors.

* * * * *

Rain fell incessantly for several days, and even when it ceased masses
of white vapour rose up from the neighbouring valleys and blotted out
everything. The vapour had lifted, however, when Fasch and his sister
started on their expedition, and Anna, tired of her week's seclusion,
set out on a ramble. A strange new feeling came over the girl as soon as
she lost sight of her aunt's straight figure. She was free, there would
be no one to scold her or to make her feel awkward; she vaulted with
delight, and with an ease that surprised her, over the fence that parted
the two meadows; she looked down at her skirt, and she saw with relief
that she had not much frayed it, yet she knew there were thorns, for
there had been an abundance of wild roses in the hedge.

A lark was singing blithely overhead, and the grasshoppers filled the
air with joyful chirpings. Anna's face beamed with content.

"If life could be always like to-day!" she thought, "oh, how nice it
would be!"

[Sidenote: In the Marsh]

Presently she reach