"You think I would make a queer little man?" she said, laughing too; but her face became sober immediately, and with a glance at the shut dining-room door she continued: "It is so horrid to feel weak. My sister Susie says I am very obstinate. Perhaps I was with her, but different people have different effects on one." She sank her voice to a whisper, and looked at him anxiously. "You can't think what an _effort_ it is to me to say No to that man." "What, to Dellwig?" "Sh--sh." "But if that is how you feel, my dear Miss Estcourt, it is very evident that the man must go." "How easy it is to say that! Pray, who is to tell him to go?" "I will, if you wish." "If you were a woman, do you suppose you would be able to turn out an old servant who has worked here so many years?" "Yes, I am sure I would, if I felt that he was getting beyond my control." "No, you wouldn't. All sorts of things would stop you. You would remember that your uncle specially told you to keep him on, that he has been here ages, that he was faithful and devoted----" "I do not believe there was much devotion." "Oh yes, there was. The first evening he cried about dear Uncle Joachim." "He cried?" repeated Axel incredulously. "He did indeed." "It was about something else, then." "No, he really cried about Uncle Joachim. He really loved him." Axel looked profoundly unconvinced. "But after all those are not the real reasons," said Anna; "they ought to be, but they're not. The simple truth is that I am a coward, and I am frightened--dreadfully frightened--of possible scenes." And she looked at him and laughed ruefully. "There--you see what it is to be a woman. If I were a man, how easy things would be. Please consider the mortification of knowing that if he persuades long enough I shall give in, against my better judgment. He has the strongest will I think I ever came across." "But you have not yet given in, I hope, on any point of importance?" "Up to now I have managed to say No to everything I don't want to do. But you would laugh if you knew what those Nos cost me. Why cannot the place go on as it was? I am perfectly satisfied. But hardly a day passes without some wonderful new plan being laid before me, and he talks--oh, how he talks! I believe he would convince even you."