hysician--Dr. Tromfszky. Pray, Herr Count,
let me see your tongue."

Instead of his tongue, the count exhibited a powerful fist.

"What do you want here? Who brought you here?" he demanded.

"Pray, pray be calm, Herr Count," soothingly responded the doctor, who
was inclined to look upon this aggressive exhibition as a result of the
fever. "Allow me to examine your pulse. We have here a slight paroxysm
that requires medical aid. Come, let me feel your pulse; one, two--"

The count snatched his wrist from the doctor's grasp, and cried angrily:

"But I don't need a doctor, or any medicine. There is nothing at all the
matter with me. I don't want anything from you, but to know who brought
you here."

"Beg pardon," retorted the offended doctor. "I was summoned, and came
through this dreadful storm. I was told that the Herr Count was
seriously ill."

"Who said so? Henry?" demanded the count, rising on one knee.

Henry did not venture to move or speak.

"Did you fetch this doctor, Henry?" again demanded the invalid, with
expanded nostrils, panting with fury.

The doctor, fancying that it would be well to tell the truth, now
interposed politely:

"Allow me, Herr Count! Herr Henry did not come alone to fetch me, but
he came with the gracious countess; and on foot, too, in this weather."

"What? Marie?" gasped the invalid; and at that moment his face looked as
if he had become suddenly insane. An involuntary epileptic convulsion
shook his limbs. He fell from the bed, but sprang at the same instant to
his feet again, flung himself like an angry lion upon Henry, caught him
by the throat, and cried with the voice of a demon:

"Wretch! Betrayer! What have you dared to do? I will kill you!"

The doctor required nothing further. He did not stop to see the friendly
promise fulfilled, but, leaving his lances, elixirs, and plasters behind
him, he flew down the staircase, four steps at a time, and into the
pouring rain, totally forgetting the ischias which threatened his leg.
Nor did he once think of a carriage, or of a human dromedary,--not even
of a lantern, or an umbrella,--as he galloped down the dark road through
the thickest of the mud.

When the count seized Henry by the throat and began to shake him, as a
lion does the captured buffalo, Marie stepped suddenly to his side, and
in a clear, commanding tone cried:

"Louis!"

At this word he released Henry, fell on his knees at Marie's feet,
clasped both arms around