hands. How charming they all were! This one said:

"Shall we change flowers? It brings luck, they say."

"Yes," I answered, holding out my hand, "let us change flowers, and I
thank you for it. How pretty you are! You have a lovely voice; I have
been listening to it all the time."

But she drew back her harebells and said curtly:

"What are you thinking about? It was not you I meant."

It was not me she meant! It hurt me to feel that I had been mistaken; I
wished myself at home again, far away in my hut, where only the wind
could speak to me. "I beg your pardon," I said; "forgive me." The other
ladies looked at one another and moved away, so as not to humiliate me.

Just at that moment someone came quickly over towards us. All could see
her--it was Edwarda. She came straight to me. She said something, and
threw her arms round my neck; clasped her arms round my neck and kissed
me again and again on the lips. Each time she said something, but I did
not hear what it was. I could not understand it all; my heart stood
still; I had only a feeling of her burning look. Then she slipped away
from me; her little breast beat up and down. She stood there still, with
her brown face and brown neck, tall and slender, with flashing eyes,
altogether heedless. They were all looking at her. For the second time I
was fascinated by her dark eyebrows, that curved high up into her
forehead.

But, Heavens--the girl had kissed me openly in sight of them all!