Directly after the midday meal Anna went out to gather a wild-flower
nosegay, to place in the sitting-room in honour of her father's return.
It seemed to her the only means she had of showing him how glad she was
to see him again.
While she was busy gathering Andreas crossed the meadow; he did not see
Anna stooping over the flowers, and she kept herself hidden; but the
sight of him brought back a haunting fear. What was it? What had Andreas
said that she had forgotten? He had said something which had startled
her at the time, and which now came pressing urgently on her for
remembrance, although she could not distinctly recall it.
What was it? Anna stood asking herself; the flowers fell out of her hand
on to the grass among their unplucked companions; she stood for some
minutes absorbed in thought.
Andreas had passed out of sight, and she could not venture to follow
him, for she did not know what she wanted him to tell her.
A raindrop fell on her hand, and she looked up. Yes, the rain had begun
again. Anna gave a sudden start; she left the flowers and set off
running towards the point at which she was accustomed to meet her
father.
With the raindrop the clue she had been seeking had come to her. Andreas
had said there might very likely be landslips, and who could say that
there might not have been one on the hillside above Malans? Anna had
often heard her father say that, though he could climb the steep ascent
with his burden, he should be sorry to have to go down with it.
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