the old fascination. She laughed when Hans told her how the dog had
found her, and had licked her face without wakening her. He was at
this moment greedily watching every bite she took, and she began to
share with him.

As soon as she had finished, they went slowly towards the soeter--and
Beret was soon in bed. The two sat on the bench outside the door.
Small rain was beginning to fall, but the broad eaves kept them from
feeling it. The mist closed round the soeter, and shut them in in
a sort of magic circle. It was neither day nor night, but dark rather
than light. Each softly spoken word brought more confidence into their
talk. Now for the first time they were really speaking to each other.
He asked her so humbly to forgive him for not having remembered that
she must feel differently from him, and that she had parents who must
be consulted. She confessed her fear, and then she told him that he
was the first real, strong, self-reliant man she had ever known, and
that this, and other things she had heard about him, had--she would
not go on.

But in their trembling happiness everything spoke, to the slightest
breath they drew. That wonderful intercourse began of soul with soul,
which in most cases precedes and prepares for the first embrace, but
with these two came after it. The first timid questions came through
the darkness, the first timid answers found their way back. The words
fell softly, like spirit sounds on the night air. At last Mildrid took
courage to ask hesitatingly if her behaviour had not sometimes struck
him as very strange. He assured her that he had never thought it so,
never once. Had he not noticed that she had not said one word all the
time they were together yesterday? No, he had not noticed that. Had he
not wondered at her going off down to her parents? No, he had thought
it only right of her. Had he not thought (for a long time she would
not say this, but at last the words came, in a whisper, with her face
turned away), had he not thought that she had let things go too
quickly? No, he had only thought how beautifully everything had
happened. But what had he thought of the way she had cried at their
first meeting? Well, at the time it had puzzled him, but now he
understood it, quite well--and he was glad she was like that.

All these answers made her so happy that she felt she wanted to be
alone. And as if he had guessed this, he got up quietly and said that
now she must go to bed. She rose. H