"Oh no!" she said, in a hurried, low voice. "Natalie," said he, very gently, "I once heard of a wicked creature who was determined to play the hypocrite, and might have done a great deal of mischief, only she had a most amiable mother, who stepped in and gave somebody else a warning. Did you ever hear of such a wicked person?" The blood mounted to her face. By this time Anneli had taken leave to fall behind. "Then," said the girl, with some hesitation, and yet with firmness, "you will not misunderstand me. If all the circumstances are to be altered, then--then you must forget what I have said to you in moments of trouble. I have a right to ask it. You must forget the past altogether." "But it is impossible!" "It is necessary." For some minutes they walked on in silence. Then he felt a timid touch on his arm; her hand had been laid there, deprecatingly, for a moment. "Are you angry with me?" "No, I am not," said he, frankly, "for the very reason that what you ask is impossible, unnecessary, absurd. You might as well ask me to forget that I am alive. In any case, isn't it rather too soon? Are you so sure that all the trouble is past? Wait till the storm is well over, and we are going into port, then we will put on our Sunday manners to go ashore." "I am afraid you are angry with me," she said again, timidly. "You could not make me, if you tried," he said, simply; "but I am proud of you, Natalie--proud of the courage and clearness and frankness of your character, and I don't like to see you fall away from that, and begin to consider what a school-mistress would think of you." "It is not what any one may think of me that I consider; it is what I think of myself," she answered, in the same low voice. They reached Hans Place. The mother was at the door of the room to welcome them. She took her daughter by the hand and led her in. "Look round, Natalushka," she said. "Can you guess who has arranged all this for me--for me and for you?" The girl almost instantly turned--her eyes cast down--and took her lover's hand, and kissed it in silence. That was all. Then said he, lightly, as he shoved the low easy-chair nearer the fire, "Come, madame, and sit down here; and you, Natalushka, here is a stool for you, that you will be able to lean your head on your mother's knee. There; it is a very pretty group: do you know why I make you into a picture? Well, you see, these are troubled times; and one has one's work to do; and who can tell what may happen? But don't you see that, whatever may happen, I can carry away with me this picture; and always, wherever I may be, I can say to myself that Natalie and her mother are together in the quiet little room, and that they are happy. Now I must bid you good-bye; I have a great deal of business to-day with my solicitor. And the landlady, madame: how does she serve you?" "She overwhelms me with kindness."