Page:Karl Gjellerup - Minna, A novel - 1913.djvu/326

 pleasure-trip together! How little did it harmonise with the relations that I had imagined between them, with the plan that had inspired me!

"I suppose southward bound, to Italy?"

"No, we shall limit ourselves to Saxony."

"I imagine you have business in Dresden, Harald?"

Minna was, strange to say, evidently the first of us to regain her self-control; she only continued to breathe somewhat quickly and irregularly. Her smile and voice—yes, even her movements, expressed the most vivid joy at this meeting.

"Very likely you are going back to Pirna? That's capital, then you can drive with us."

"There is plenty of room," Stephensen said. "It is not a victoria. And besides, I would willingly sit on the box."

He forced his usual polite smile; the lips obeyed, but not the eyes. He was obviously irritated; but Minna either did not notice it, or did not care.

"Very likely our talk will tire you, we have so much to speak of after so many years," she said.

We started at once on the return journey. In a window of the school-building stood the master. He leaned far out and continued to follow us with his eyes. Minna laughed.

"Well, my cousin still exists! Do you remember, when he met us on the forest path? God knows what sort of thoughts he has! I hope he will not stare his eyes out of his head."

She continued laughing and joking, a little hysterically, it seemed to me.

"There we have the dear old saw-mill, where I came with the little girls in the morning to drink new milk. Why were