sfaction in a series
of rapid pantomimic nods, and then replied in deliberate but tolerable
English, to my great surprise,--

"It is the 29th of September, my dear sir. You must thank the dear God.
Your fever has made its course of twenty-one days. Now patience and care
must be practised. The good host and his household will have the care;
you must have the patience. If you have relations in England, I will do
my endeavours to tell them the state of your health."

"I have no near relations," said I, beginning in my weakness to cry, as
I remembered, as if it had been a dream, the days when I had father,
mother, sister.

"Chut, chut!" said he; then, turning to the landlord, he told him in
German to make Thekla bring me one of her good bouillons; after which
I was to have certain medicines, and to sleep as undisturbedly as
possible. For days, he went on, I should require constant watching and
careful feeding; every twenty minutes I was to have something, either
wine or soup, in small quantities.

A dim notion came into my hazy mind that my previous husbandry of my
fifty pounds, by taking long walks and scanty diet, would prove in the
end very bad economy; but I sank into dozing unconsciousness before I
could quite follow out my idea. I was roused by the touch of a spoon on
my lips; it was Thekla feeding me. Her sweet, grave face had something
approaching to a mother's look of tenderness upon it, as she gave me
spoonful after spoonful with gentle patience and dainty care: and then I
fell asleep once more. When next I wakened it was night; the stove was
lighted, and the burning wood made a pleasant crackle, though I could
only see the outlines and edges of red flame through the crevices of
the small iron door. The uncurtained window on my left looked into the
purple, solemn night. Turning a little, I saw Thekla sitting near a table,
sewing diligently at some great white piece of household work. Every now
and then she stopped to snuff the candle; sometimes she began to ply her
needle again immediately; but once or twice she let her busy hands lie
idly in her lap, and looked into the darkness, and thought deeply for a
moment or two; these pauses always ended in a kind of sobbing sigh, the
sound of which seemed to restore her to self-consciousness, and she took
to her sewing even more diligently than before. Watching her had a sort
of dreamy interest for me; this diligence of hers was a pleasant contrast
to my repose; it se