n up all night?"

"Yes. No, I won't sit down, I must go back to her. Anna has been in pain
all night. She wouldn't have you disturbed before because she said you
looked so run down yesterday. You told her you had caught a cold and
been very worried."

Straightway Andreas felt that he was being accused.

"Well, she made me tell her, worried it out of me; you know the way she
does."

Again Frau Binzer nodded.

"Oh yes, I know. She says, is your cold better, and there's a warm
undervest for you in the left-hand corner of the big drawer."

Quite automatically Andreas cleared his throat twice.

"Yes," he answered. "Tell her my throat certainly feels looser. I
suppose I'd better not disturb her?"

"No, and besides, TIME, Andreas."

"I'll be ready in five minutes."

They went into the passage. As Frau Binzer opened the door of the front
bedroom, a long wail came from the room.

That shocked and terrified Andreas. He dashed into the bathroom, turned
on both taps as far as they would go, cleaned his teeth and pared his
nails while the water was running.

"Frightful business, frightful business," he heard himself whispering.
"And I can't understand it. It isn't as though it were her first--it's
her third. Old Schafer told me, yesterday, his wife simply 'dropped' her
fourth. Anna ought to have had a qualified nurse. Mother gives way to
her. Mother spoils her. I wonder what she meant by saying I'd worried
Anna yesterday. Nice remark to make to a husband at a time like this.
Unstrung, I suppose--and my sensitiveness again."

When he went into the kitchen for his boots, the servant girl was
bent over the stove, cooking breakfast. "Breathing into that, now, I
suppose," thought Andreas, and was very short with the servant girl.
She did not notice. She was full of terrified joy and importance in the
goings on upstairs. She felt she was learning the secrets of life with
every breath she drew. Had laid the table that morning saying, "Boy,"
as she put down the first dish, "Girl," as she placed the second--it
had worked out with the saltspoon to "Boy." "For two pins I'd tell the
master that, to comfort him, like," she decided. But the Master gave her
no opening.

"Put an extra cup and saucer on the table," he said; "the doctor may
want some coffee."

"The doctor, sir?" The servant girl whipped a spoon out of a pan, and
spilt two drops of grease on the stove. "Shall I fry something extra?"
But the master had gone, slammin