tone-hewers would, in
all probability, not be defeated by the brutal intervention of a
Bavarian fist. The physician, on the other hand, reported that the
wound in the left shoulder was not altogether without danger, as the
stab had reached the extremity of one of the lungs, and a long rest and
course of nursing would be necessary before the arm could be used
again. For the rest, the patient would receive the best of care in Herr
Rossel's villa; his blood and circulation were in a thoroughly healthy
condition, and serious danger was quite out of the question.

The doctor, who had never before seen the baron and the beautiful,
silent Fraeulein, and who found nothing strange in her sympathy, as she
had formed one of the party on the day before, soon took his leave,
with a promise to keep them regularly informed about the case. Scarcely
had he gone, when Irene declared she would not go away from the place
until all danger was over; but that then she would not breathe the air
on this side of the Alps a moment longer--it weighed upon her spirits.

Her uncle had to give her his word of honor that he would consent to
this arrangement, and also that he would not let Schnetz observe how
deeply they were both interested in the wounded man, but would explain
their sympathy as arising from pure philanthrophy. And it really was
nothing more than that, she said.

Even though every inner bond was severed between them, still, she would
never be able to answer for it to her conscience if she should start
off before the question whether he might not possibly need her had been
definitely set at rest.

CHAPTER X.

Was it nothing but abstract philanthropy that suffered Irene to find no
rest in any place or any occupation all that day, in spite of the
comforting assurances of the doctor?--that drove her from the piano to
the writing-desk, from the writing-desk out on to the balcony, and from
the garden down to the shore? Not a step sounded on the floor, not a
carriage rolled past in the street, but what she trembled. She had
herself sufficiently under control, however, not to betray her
nervousness by a single word. But her feverish restlessness did not
escape her uncle, who, the night before, had gained for the first time
a clear insight into a nature usually so proud. He was secretly
rejoiced at this, much as he pitied the poor child in her restless
grief. For the first time in years he felt that