He cast a shy look at his working-suit, and began to untie the knots of his seed-cloth; but it slipped round to the back of his neck, so that he could not reach it. “Do come as you are,” called out the voice; and now he could see how the upper part of her body raised itself from the hammock, while a book, bound in red and gold, glided from her hands and fell to the ground. Hesitatingly he approached, trying secretly to wipe his boots in the moss, for the soil of the fields was sticking to them. She on her part had only this moment perceived that her feet and white stockings showed beneath her dress, and hastily tried to cover them with the shawl which had been put round her shoulders. But she could not pull it from under her arms, and she could think of nothing better than to crouch down quickly so that she looked like a hen, while the hammock swayed to and fro. Perhaps she might have had the intention to impress him a little with her elegance and freshly-acquired social education, but now, as fate would have it, she did not look at him less blushingly or shyly than he at her. On his side he observed nothing of her state of mind; he only saw that she had grown very beautiful, that her hair was twisted up into a very aristocratic knot, and that the bow at her bosom trembled slightly on her rounded form. It was quite clear to him that she had now grown into a lady. A long while elapsed before either of them spoke a word. “Good-day,” she said, at last, with a little laugh, and stretched out her right hand to him, for she soon saw that she had the best of it. He was silent and smiled at her. “Help me to pull out my shawl,” she continued. He did so. “That’s it; now turn round.” He did that, too. “Now it’s all right.” She had made herself comfortable, thrown the shawl quickly over her feet again, and was looking up at him roguishly through the meshes of the hammock. “It’s really delightful to be with you again,” she said; “you are the best of them all. Have you also been longing for me?” “No,” he answered, truthfully. “Oh, get away with you!” she replied, and, pouting, tried to turn over to the other side; but the hammock began to sway too much again, so she laughed and remained lying as she was. He wondered inwardly at her being so merry. He never heard any one laugh like that, except the twins, and they were children. But this laugh gave him back his self-possession, for he felt instinctively how much older than she he had grown during the interval. “I suppose you have been very happy all this time?” he asked.