"Well?" he said, as she paused. "That, I take it, is a prelude to something else."
"Yes, it is. It's a prelude to Karlchen."
"To Karlchen?"
She looked at him, and laughed rather nervously. "I am afraid," she said, "that Karlchen is coming to stay with me."
"And who, pray, is Karlchen?"
"The only son of his mother, and she is a widow."
He came to a standstill again. "What," he said, "Frau von Treumann has asked you to invite her son to Kleinwalde?"
"She didn't actually ask, but she got a sad letter from him, and seemed to feel the separation so much, and cried about it, and so—and so I did."
Axel was silent.
"I don't yearn to see Karlchen," said Anna in rather a small voice. She could not help feeling that the invitation had been wrung from her.