pillow, still half
asleep. "That must be Marquard. Good heavens, it is broad daylight!"

"To be sure!" laughed the new arrival. "It requires the presence of a
despicable empiric like myself, to make the Herr Philosopher aware that
the sun is several hours high in the heavens. Well, how are you,
patient? Has the prescription wrought its work? I am almost inclined to
believe that the dose was too strong."

Nodding kindly to Balder, he hastily approached the bed and touched
Edwin's brow and temples before feeling his pulse. The keen, light gray
eyes gazed through a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles at a heavy gold
watch, and the youthfully round and regular, though somewhat pale face,
which on entering the door had worn an expression of the gayest
unconcern, now assumed a quiet, watchful air, while the elegant figure,
which was of about the medium height, leaned lightly on a chair beside
the bed.

"My dear Herr Medicinalrath," said Edwin, "your master work has been
performed on me. Mother Nature, who may well fear you since you
irreverently pry into her most sacred secrets and scan all her little
weaknesses as through a microscope, seems, at your command, to have
once more taken pity upon me, and granted me sleep. All else will
follow as a matter of course; at least I already feel a truly wolfish
appetite. If you'll allow me. Doctor, I'll only put on the most
necessary articles of clothing, and go to breakfast at once, to relieve
Balder, who I see has again waited for me."

"_Probatum est_," laughed the doctor, pocketing his watch. "I was
perfectly well aware, that for brains like yours, there is no better
narcotic than the mixture of folly, noise, and tights, we men of the
world swallow to excite us. I find your symptoms to-day far more
encouraging than yesterday, and, within a few days, I think I shall
repeat the dose. Hunger is a good symptom. But I don't see the
breakfast."

"It is standing on the table yonder," said Balder, quietly.

The doctor stepped to the little table, which, covered with a green
cloth, stood in the middle of the room, and gazed, with an
indescribable look of pity and horror, at the white pitcher, which
stood between two stoneware cups, while a tin plate beside it contained
two small rolls.

"Pardon me," said he, "my science does not extend so far as to enable
me to determine, by its mere appearance, the name of the strong broth
which awaits you here as your first meal."

"It is pure, una