Only a Girl Part 72

"His child," Hilsborn replied with grave emphasis.

The old lady went up instantly to the lovely, shrinking girl and embraced her, saying significantly to Hilsborn, "Now I understand you!"

"Dear Fraulein Gleissert," said Johannes, "you are most welcome, and you must allow us to offer you a home until you find a better."

"You are too kind," stammered Gretchen. "I know how bold I am, but my guardian----"

"What! Hilsborn, are you her guardian?"

"Her dying father wished it to be so, and therefore I brought her here to place her under your protection, although she wished to see no one except Ernestine."

"She can hardly see her for sometime yet," said Mollner. "Ernestine's fever may be infectious."

"Oh, is that all?" Gretchen ventured to remonstrate. "Then pray let me go to her. Nothing can harm me when I am doing my duty. Better to die than live on without being permitted to do as I know I ought. Oh, dear Herr Hilsborn, you know what I mean, speak for me!"

"Do not refuse her, Johannes. She will not be content until she is with Ernestine. I make a fearful sacrifice in exposing her to this danger, when I would guard her like the apple of my eye, but I know how she is longing for Ernestine."

"Then, Fraulein Gleissert, you shall share with my mother the care of the invalid."

"Thank you all a thousand times! May I go now?"

"Take her to Ernestine's room, mother dear, while I speak with Hilsborn," said Johannes.

"Come, then, my child." The Staatsrathin opened the door of the darkened apartment, and the girl entered.

Gretchen stood as if rooted to the spot. There lay the dreaded, mute accuser of her father, the unfortunate victim of his crimes, pale and beautiful as an ideal embodiment of death,--a glorious lily, prostrated, perhaps never again to stand erect, by the same hand that a few days before had been laid in blessing upon Gretchen's head. The poor child, crushed by the sight, sank upon her knees, and, extending her arms, cried in a suppressed voice of agony, "Forgive, forgive!"

Ernestine did not reply, for she did not hear. Reason was dethroned behind that pale, broad brow, and confused dreams were running riot there in the wildest anarchy.

Only when Gretchen perceived that Ernestine was wholly unconscious, did she dare to approach close to her. Gazing at her with admiring pity, she murmured to herself, "No, my father did not understand, or he maligned you. You are not bad, you cannot be bad!" And, kneeling, she breathed a gentle kiss upon the small hand.

Did the invalid feel that something loving was near? She put out her hand towards the kneeling girl, and, detaining her by the dress, leaned her head upon her shoulder.

"She will let me stay by her," whispered Gretchen with a face of delight.

The Staatsrathin could not help stroking the brow of the charming child, and Frau Willmers felt as if this stranger were an angel, come to lead Ernestine into a better world.

"Such a sick-room I like to see," suddenly said a suppressed ba.s.s voice that made Gretchen start. "This is a pretty sight," it continued, and old Heim looked searchingly at Gretchen from beneath his bushy white eyebrows.

The girl would have arisen, but Ernestine would not release her, and Heim motioned to her to be quiet. "You have one hand free, my child, give it to me. I am your guardian's foster-father, and I know what a good child you are. The fellow was right to bring you here,--I would have brought you myself. G.o.d bless you!"

He seated himself by the bedside, and a deep expectant silence reigned in the room as he felt Ernestine's pulse. Besides Gretchen's, two other anxious eyes were riveted upon his face. Mollner had just entered noiselessly. "Well, what do you think?" he asked eagerly.

Heim shrugged his shoulders. "I do not think it is typhus.

Nevertheless----"

Scarcely had the invalid heard Johannes' voice when she released Gretchen and turned her face towards the spot where Mollner was standing. He approached the bed and leaned over her. She put out her arms to him, but instantly dropped them again, as if, even in her delirium, she would not confess herself conquered. And then she talked wildly on, at times declaring that she could not get rid of the skull,--it would follow her everywhere, and then pleading piteously that she was not yet dead, and they must not put her down into the narrow grave.

"This is the result of a woman's giving herself up to anatomical studies," said Mollner.

"There has been dreadful work with the nerves here, and with the brain too," muttered Heim. "The fever has increased since I have been sitting here. If we could only disabuse her mind of these delirious fancies!"

"I have tried that, but contradiction only excites her."

"Let this child try, then. It is impossible to say what effect she might produce," said Heim. "Have you the courage, my child, to watch with your cousin tonight?"

"Oh, sir, I think I can never touch my bed until Ernestine has left hers."

"There's a brave girl! upon my word, I've seen nothing so charming for a long while. She will soon rival Ernestine in my heart!"

Johannes laid a cloth dipped in ice-water upon Ernestine's forehead, who continued to moan bitterly that she was not dead and they must not treat her thus.

"Ernestine," said Gretchen in her clear, bell-like voice, "no one shall harm you. Be quiet, dear."

"Do you not see," wailed the sick girl, "that they are trying to weigh my brain? and it hurts! oh, how it hurts!"

"Ernestine, you are dreaming," said Gretchen. "This is only a damp cloth. Feel it yourself."

"Remember that, although I am dead, my soul is living. Oh, if I could only stop thinking! Dying is nothing! living is the worst of all!"

Johannes turned away, and wrung his hands. "Ah, Johannes!" she exclaimed, "my uncle's knife is sharp, I cannot get away. Why did they bind me here, if they thought me dead?" And in an instant she thrust Gretchen aside, and would have leaped from the bed, had not Johannes gently but firmly thrown his strong arm around her and forced her back among the pillows.

"Let me go! let go!" she moaned. "Who ever heard of dissection before death?"

"Ernestine," Johannes cried in despair, "it is I,--Johannes. No one shall harm you!"

But she either did not hear or did not understand him, and she struggled so that Johannes could scarcely hold her.

"This is dreadful!" said the Staatsrathin, supporting Gretchen's tottering form. "Do you still think, Father Heim, after this, that physiology is the study for a woman's nerves? Can a woman's nature take a more terrible revenge than this?"

Heim shook his head, and grumbled, "Frail stuff, indeed, but yet I thought she could stand it. Well, well, one is never too old to learn."

And still Ernestine raved on, ceaselessly haunted by the same grim phantoms created by the fearful struggle that she had lately pa.s.sed through.

At last exhaustion supervened, and she lay perfectly silent and motionless. Heim took his hat and cane. "I think she will have a quieter night. You should take some rest, Johannes. You cannot stand such uninterrupted watching."

"I have done all that I could to persuade him to lie down," said his mother. "I can easily watch one night, especially now since I have such a dear little a.s.sistant. And Willmers too will wear herself out. She is as obstinate as Johannes."

"There is nothing to be done with him," said Heim. "It is a good thing that it is vacation, or this would soon come to an end. Well, I must go. It is quite a drive to town."

"It would have been better if we could have taken her home with us,"

said the Staatsrathin. "But the illness was so sudden and violent that she could not be moved, and we had to come out here to nurse her."

"You are good people!" And Heim held out his hand to them. "G.o.d will reward you for your kindness to the poor child."

"All that I do, dear friend, is done for my son's sake. I am sure he will thank me."

"Indeed he will, mother," Johannes declared with emphasis.