Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/57

Rh entered the room, and hurrying breathlessly to Karl, exclaimed:—

"How daredst thou to ask the teacher to be thy wife? It was thou that hast made her ill, and she will go away from our house because of thee, and—" Annette stopped for lack of breath, and because the two men had both sprung to their feet, and were gesticulating violently,—Karl with an angry voice. "God in Heaven! What dost thou take me for, Annette? Dost thou not know I would as soon ask one of the angels in Paradise to be wife to me? Who has told thee this tale?"

And Wilhelm, "Annette, art thou mad, or dost thou think Karl is a madman?"

Annette looked tremblingly from one to the other. She herself had felt like this when Margaret had first told her. In a hesitating voice she began:— "But Miss Margaret has said that thou—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Karl's face, white as the face of a dead man, was bent close to hers, and Karl's voice, strange, husky, was saying, in slow, gasping syllables:— "The teacher—said—I—asked—her—to—be—wife?"

Annette nodded, too terrified to speak.

Karl strode to the door, and opened it. Annette ran to hold him back, but Wilhelm restrained her. In that short moment Wilhelm had understood all.