"Walpurga," said Gunther, rising from his seat, "lay aside your old acting."
"What? acting? I don't know what you mean! What have I to do with acting?"
"That does not concern us now. Did you want to ask me anything? or have you anything to tell me?"
"To be sure; that's just why I came."
"What is it?"
"Yes; but you seem so strange that my thoughts are quite mixed up. Hansei doesn't know that I've come here, and not another soul in the world is to know about it but yourself. I can keep a secret; I have kept one. I can be trusted."
"I know it," said the physician, in a hard voice.
"You know it? How? You can't know it, and I shan't tell you all of it, either. I might have told you, but after such a reception, I can't."
"Do as you please; speak or be silent; but cut it short, for I have very little time."
"Then I'd rather come some other time."