"Do come if you can! Are you sleepy? Do you want me to go now?"
"I am a little tired," and, pulling Cesca's head down, she kissed her. "God bless you, darling."
"Thank you." Cesca went across the floor on her bare feet; at the door she turned, saying in a sad, childish voice: "I do wish Lennart and I could be happy!"
Gert and Jenny were walking side by side down the windy path under ragged pines. He stopped to pick some little wild strawberries, ran after her, and put them in her mouth. She thanked him with a smile, and he took her hand as they walked towards the sea that showed glittering blue between the trees.
He looked bright and young in a light summer suit, the panama hiding his hair completely. Jenny sat down near the edge of the wood, Gert lying on the grass beside her in the shade of big drooping birches.
It was scorching hot and still; the grassy slope by the water was dried yellow. Over the point hung a blue metallic bar of haze with white and smoke-yellow clouds in front. The fjord was light blue, streaked with the currents, the sailing boats lay still and white, and the smoke from the steamers hung long in the air in grey strips. There was a slight swirl of water round the pebbles, and the twigs of the birches moved gently above their heads, dropping one or two leaves dried by the heat.
One of them fell on her fair curly hair—she had taken off her hat—and Gert removed it. Looking at it, he said:
"Queer how the rain keeps off this summer. You women are much better off than we are, wearing such thin dresses. It
