ss.
It was impatience which made the minutes become quarters of an hour. She
would have liked to go to the cool frigidarium again to watch for the
physician's litter; but she was warned, and had accustomed herself
to follow the doctor's directions as obediently as a dutiful child.
Besides, Sister Hyacinthe no longer left her alone out of doors, and
possessed a reliable representative, who had won Barbara's confidence
and affection, in Frau Lamperi, the garde-robiere, whom the Queen of
Hungary had not yet summoned.

So she remained under the linden, and Dr. Mathys did not put her newly
won virtue of patience, which he prized so highly, to too severe a
trial.

Fran Lamperi had watched for him, and hastily announced that his litter
had already passed the Reichart pottery.

Now Barbara did not turn her eyes from the garden door through which the
man she ardently longed to see usually came, and when it opened and the
stout, broad-shouldered leech, with his peaked doctor's hat, long staff,
and fine linen kerchief in his right hand advanced toward her, she
motioned to the nun and the maid to leave them, and pressed her left
hand upon her heart, for her emotion at the sight of him resembled
the feeling of the prisoner who expects the paper with which the judge
enters his cell to contain his death-warrant.

She thought she perceived her own in the physician's slow, almost
lagging step. His gait was always measured; but if he had had good news
to bring, he would have approached more rapidly. A sign, a gesture, a
shout would have informed her that he was bearing something cheering.

But there was nothing of this kind.

He did not raise his hat until he stood directly in front of her,
and while mopping his broad, clamp brow and plump cheeks with his
handkerchief, she read in his features the confirmation of her worst
fears.

Now in his grave voice, which sounded still deeper than usual, he
uttered a curt "Well, it can't be helped," and shrugged his shoulders
sorrowfully.

This gesture destroyed her last hope. Unable to control herself longer,
she cried out in the husky voice whose hoarse tone was increased by her
intense agitation: "I see it in your face, Doctor; I must be prepared
for the worst."

"Would to Heaven I could deny it!" he answered in a hollow tone; but
Barbara urged him to speak and conceal nothing from her, not even the
harshest news.

The leech obeyed.

With sincere compassion he saw how her face bla