na looked down. "I have been thinking the same thing," she said in a
low voice; she felt as though she were hauling down her flag.

"Perhaps you will let me help."

"Help?"

"Let me contribute. Why may I not be charitable too? If we join together
it will be to her advantage. She need not know. And you are not a
millionaire."

"Nor are you," said Anna, smiling up at him.

"We unfortunates who live by our potatoes are never millionaires. But
still we can be charitable."

"But why should _you_ help the baroness? I found her out, and brought
her here, and I am the only person responsible for her."

"It will be much more costly than just having her here."

"I don't mind, if only she is happy. And I will not have you pay the
cost of my experiments in philanthropy."

"Is Frau von Treumann happy?" he asked abruptly.

"No," said Anna, with a faint smile.

"Is Fraeulein Kuhraeuber happy?"

"No."

"Tell me one thing more," he said; "are _you_ happy?"

Anna blushed. "That is a queer question," she said. "Why should I not be
happy?"

"But are you?"

She looked at him, hesitating. Then she said, in a very small voice,
"No."

Axel took two or three turns up and down the room. "I knew it," he said;
and added something in German under his breath about _Weiber_. "After
this, you will not, I suppose, receive young Treumann again?" he asked,
coming to a halt in front of her.

"Never again."

"You have a difficult time before you, then, with his mother."

Anna blushed. "I am afraid I have," she admitted.

"You have a very difficult few weeks before you," he said. "The baroness
probably dangerously ill, and Frau von Treumann very angry with you. I
know Princess Ludwig does all she can, but still you are alone--against
odds."

The odds, too, were greater than she knew. All day he had been
officially engaged in making inquiries into the origin of the fire the
night before, and every circumstance pointed to Klutz as the culprit. He
had sent for Klutz, and Klutz, they said, had gone home. Then he sent a
telegram after him, and his father replied that he was neither expecting
his son nor was he ill. Klutz, then, had disappeared in order to avoid
the consequences of what he had done; but it was only a question of days
before the police brought him back again, and then he would tell the
whole absurd story, and Pomerania would chuckle at Anna's expense. The
thought of this chuckling made Axel cold with rage.

He stood