He was most ready to appease her, most ready to show
her everything, for he felt himself to blame, though he certainly
thought that she might have understood; but her presence would
have marred their tete-a-tete; he would have been embarrassed
enough if she had acquiesced!
The Dean, with his wife and daughter, came the following Sunday to
return Fru Kaas's visit. She was politeness itself, and specially
thanked Helene for her care of Hellebergene. Helene coloured
without knowing why, but when Rafael also coloured, she blushed
still deeper. This was the event of the visit; nothing else of
importance occurred.
In their daily walks through the fields and woods, the two young
people soon exhausted the topic of Hellebergene. He took up
another theme. His inventions became the topic of conversation. He
had acquired, from his studies with his mother, an unusual
facility in explaining his meaning, and in Helene he found a
listener such as he had rarely before met with. She was
sufficiently acquainted with the laws of nature to understand a
simple description. But all the same it was not his inventions but
himself that he discoursed on.
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