"Don't say 'little schoolgirl'--that makes me furious," cried Gurli, as she pushed the cover aside with both hands and jumped saying that I had such pretty eyes--and then he said that such a happy little sunbeam as I could light up his whole life, and that if he could not meet me, he would not know what to do--" "Gurli!" cried Arla, and grasped her sister's arm violently. "Do you love him?" Gurli let her eyes wander a little, and looked shy. "I think I do--I have read in the novels Arvid borrowed in school--only don't tell mamma anything about it; but I have read that when you are in love you always have such an awful palpitation of the heart when _he_ comes--and when I merely catch sight of him far off on the hill in Kommandoersgatan, I felt as if I should strangle." "Captain Lagerskioeld is a bad, bad man!" sobbed Arla, and rushed out of the room, hiding her face in her hands. The counselor's wife was still up and was reading, while her husband had gone to bed. A tall screen standing at the foot of the bed kept the light away from the sleeper. The counselor had just had a talk with his wife, which most likely would keep her awake for the greater part of the night; but he had fallen asleep as soon as he had spoken to the point. "You must forgive me that I cannot quite approve your way of fulfilling your duties as hostess," he had said when he came in to her. His wife crossed her hands on the table and looked up at him with a mild and patient face. "You show your likes and dislikes too much," he continued, "and think too little of the claims of social usage. For instance, to pay so much attention to Mrs. Ekstroem and her daughters--" "It was because nobody else paid any attention to them." "But even so, my dear, a drawing-room is not a charity institution, I take it. Etiquette goes before everything else. And then you were almost rude to Admiral Hornfeldt's wife, who is one of the first women in society." "Forgive me; but I cannot be cordial to a woman for whom I have no respect." The counselor shrugged his shoulders with a gesture of great impatience. "I wish you could learn to see how wrong it is to let yourself be influenced by these moral views in society." His wife was silent; it was her usual way of ending a conversation which she knew could lead to no result, since each kept his own opinion after all. "Did you notice Arla?" asked the counselor. "Yes. Why?" "Did you not see that she made herself conspicuous by taking such an interest in this outlived Lagerskioeld?" "I asked you not to invite Captain Lagerskioeld," said his wife mildly. "The trouble is not there," interrupted her husband; "but the trouble is that your daughter is brought up to be a goose who understands nothing. That is the result of your convent system. Girls so guarded are always ready to fall into the arms of the first man who knows somewhat how to impress them."