“Helene?”

Yes; it had so chanced that the first bailiff at Hellebergene had once been agronomist and forester on a large concern which was in liquidation, Helene had taken such a fancy to him, that when she was not at school, she went with him everywhere; and, indeed, he was a wonderful old man.  During these rambles she had learned all that he could teach her.  He had an especial gift for forestry.  It was a development for her, for it gave a fresh interest to her life.  Little by little she had taken over the whole care of the estate.  It absorbed her.

Fru Kaas asked if she might see Helene, to thank her.

“But Helene has just gone out with Rafael, has she not?”

“Yes, to be sure,” answered Fru Kaas.  She would not show surprise; but she asked at once for her carriage.

Meanwhile the two young people had determined to climb the ridge.  At first they followed the course of the river, Helene leading the way.  It was evident that she had grown up in the woods.  How strong and supple she was, and how well she acquitted herself when she had to cross a brook, climb a wooded slope, force a way through a barrier of bristly young fir-trees which opposed her passage, or surmount a heap of clay at a quarry, of which there were a great many about there.  Each difficulty was in turn overcome.  The ascent from the river was the most direct and the pleasantest, which was the reason that they had come this way.  Rafael would not be outdone by her, and kept close at her heels.  But, great heavens! what it cost him.  Partly because he was out of practice, partly—­

“It is a little difficult to get over here,” she said.  A tree had fallen during the last rainy weather, and hung half suspended by its roots, obstructing the path.  “You must not hold by it, it might give way and drag us with it.”

At last there is something which she considers difficult, he thought.

She deliberated for a moment before the farthest-spreading branches which had to be crossed; then, lifting her skirts to her knees, over them she went, and over the next ones as well, and then across the trunk to the farthest side, where there were no branches in the way; then obliquely up the hillside.  She stood still at the top of the height and watched him crawl up after her.

It cost him a struggle; he was out of breath and the perspiration poured off him.  When he got up to her, everything swam before him; and although it was only for a fraction of a second, it left him fairly captivated by her strength,

She stood and looked at him with bright, roguish eyes.  She was flushed and hot, and her bosom rose and fell quickly; but there was no doubt that she could at once have taken an equally long and steep climb.  He was not able to speak a word.

“Now turn round and look at the sea,” she said.