, as soon as the deed was done, burst into
violent sobs and afterwards did not utter a single word._

"_Leaning on her husband's arm, she ascended the stairs, greeting the
terrified servants only with a silent bend of the head and went at once
to her own rooms, where she shut herself up for several hours,
declaring that she was not hurt, and that she only needed rest. It was
not a matter of surprise, that she did not consult me, as I have
already told you, I was not in her favor, either as a physician or as a
man. But to my no small surprise, about six o'clock I was called to the
noble patient by the maid herself._

"_I found her attired in an elegant_ neglige, _sitting at a writing
table, as if nothing had happened; she was unusually pale however, and
her manner of receiving me was also surprising, for she was not in the
habit of treating me with so much kindness and condescension. While
sealing a letter and writing the address with a steady hand, she said
in reply to my question about her health, that she was sure she had
received no internal injury, but the dizziness which had recently
attacked her--you remember how she stumbled the morning after your
arrival, my dear sir--constantly hovered about her, and she wanted me
to bleed her. At first I hesitated, from scientific reasons, which it
would occupy too much space to explain here; but as I knew her, and
knew that if I refused, she would send for the village barber, I did
what she desired; it was the first time I had been permitted to touch
her arm or render her any medical service. 'What do you think of my
blood, Doctor?' she said, as it flowed into the silver basin. 'It is
healthy isn't it? With such blood one might live to be a hundred years
old!'_

"_When I put on the bandage, she expressly told me to fasten it
securely, she was often restless in her sleep she said, and it might,
easily become displaced. 'Well,' said I, 'in any case I will beg
permission to watch through the night with the maid in the ante-room.'
'If you want me not to close my eyes,' she replied, 'my nerves are so
irritated, that the slightest noise, even the mere vicinity of a man,
keeps me awake.' No, if I wished to do her a favor, I would not omit
the ride to the city I always took every Thursday, and I would carry
with me to mail, the letter she had just written._

"_You knew her, dear Herr Doctor, and therefore you know how difficult
it would have been to have refused her any thing, es