"Your uncle was a wise man. He told me he was going to leave you Kleinwalde because he felt sure you would be happy leading the simple life here." "Did he talk about me to you?" "After his last visit to England he talked about you all the time." "Oh?" said Anna, looking at him thoughtfully. Uncle Joachim, she remembered perfectly, had urged two things--the leading of the better life, and the marrying of a good German gentleman. A faint flush came into her face and faded again. She had suddenly become aware that Axel was the good German gentleman he had meant. Well, the wisest uncle was subject to errors of judgment. "I trust those women will not worry you too much," he said, thinking how immense would be the pity if those happy eyes ever lost their joyousness. "Worry me? Poor things, they won't have any energy of any sort left after all they have gone through. I never read such pitiful letters." "Well, I don't know," said Axel doubtfully. "Manske says one of them is a Treumann. It is a family distinguished by its size and its disagreeableness." "Oh, but she only married a Treumann, and isn't one herself." "But a woman generally adopts the peculiarities of the family she marries into, especially if they are unpleasant." "But she has been a widow for years. And is so poor. And is so crushed." "I never yet heard of a permanently crushed Treumann," said Axel, shaking his head. "You are trying to make me uneasy," said Anna, a slight touch of impatience in her voice. She was singularly sensitive about her chosen ones; sensitive in the way mothers are about a child that is deformed. "No, no," he said quickly, "I only wish to warn you. You maybe disappointed--it is just possible." He could not bear to think of her as disappointed. "Pray, do you know anything against the other two?" she asked with some defiance. "One of them is a Baroness Elmreich, and the other is a Fräulein Kuhräuber." Axel looked amused. "I never heard of Fräulein Kuhräuber," he said. "What does Princess Ludwig say to her coming?" "Nothing at all. What should she say?" It was Fräulein Kuhräuber's coming that had more particularly occasioned the pursing of the princess's lips. "I know some Elmreichs," said Axel. "A few of them are respectable; but one branch at least of the family is completely demoralised. A Baron Elmreich shot himself last year because he had been caught cheating at cards. And one of his sisters--oh, well, some of them are harmless, I believe." "Thank you." "You are angry with me?" "Very." "And why?" "You want to prejudice me against these poor things. They can't help what distant relations do. They will get away from them in my house, at least, and have peace." "Miss Letty, is your aunt often--what is the word--so fractious?" "Oh, I don't know," said Letty, who found it dull waiting in silence while other people talked. "It's breakfast time, you know, and people can't stand much just about then."