Egon had shivered in his wraps, which did not avail to protect him from the drenching rain, and then--what happened then? He remembered a jolt, a cry, and nothing more. But yet--yes, there were flitting, vague visions still haunting his memory. Had not he been faintly conscious of a light flashing in his eyes? And he had seen a crowd of dark, dim forms about him, not all quite strange to him. Surely, while he had been powerless to move a limb, he had felt rather than seen the compassionate gaze of two dark blue eyes in an angelic countenance. Was it a dream? Ah! during the last four years that face had often haunted his dreams,--the face of the fairy of Castle Osternau. It was her face, and yet not the same,--even more lovely than ever. Yes, this too was a dream, this touch of her soft, cool hand upon his forehead, and it so absorbed him that he could not rouse himself to a sense of reality; he went on dreaming, and a voice which he had surely heard at Castle Osternau said, at last, "We have been longing for you, doctor."
And another voice, which Egon did not know, replied, "I am very sorry, Herr von Wangen, but I could not possibly be here before. I trust I am not too late."
"I hope not, indeed." Egon recognized this voice perfectly: it was Herr von Wangen's. "The poor man's condition is unaltered. His kind nurse has just informed me that during her watch all night beside him he has never awaked to consciousness, although his breathing has been quite regular. The door on your left, doctor; he is in the blue room."
Egon opened his eyes again as the door of the room was opened and the speakers entered. One of them was Herr von Wangen. Egon recognized him immediately, in spite of the increase of manliness which the past four years had imparted to him. The other was an elderly man, an entire stranger.
This was no dream; here was Herr von Wangen in the flesh. Egon roused himself. He was on a bed, with a wound in his forehead, in a perfectly strange room; but how he came there, or what had happened, he could not divine.
"Aha! our patient is entirely conscious, a very cheering sign," said the doctor, approaching the bed. "No fever! Why, he'll soon be all right. You have distressed yourself very unnecessarily, Herr von Wangen."
He proceeded to examine the wound in the young man's forehead, which he pronounced of no consequence. "The shock of the fall had stunned him,--had produced unconsciousness. You have had a very lucky escape."
"What happened to me?"
"Herr von Wangen will tell you all about it. You really do not need my aid; you're a little weak from loss of blood, and I dare say you still have some headache. Be careful for a few days to take no amount of exercise, and you'll be all right. I must bid you good-by immediately and return to Ostrowko, where they really need me."
"May Herr Pigglewitch get up?" asked Herr von Wangen.