"They would be taken care of without her," Hildegard interposed. "However, if she chooses to play Martha, let her; our task will be different, and much more difficult, at the death-bed and the funeral."
"How can you think of death and a funeral all because of a fall on the head!" exclaimed Magelone, rising and going to a window-recess.
Hildegard smiled disdainfully. "The fable of the ostrich," she said. "But what is to be will be, however we may close our eyes to it."
"Do you really think, then, that he will die?" asked Hedwig.
"The physician from town has given him up," Hildegard replied.
Hedwig gazed into the fire. After a pause she said, scarce audibly, "If he were to die, Otto would be the heir."
"And the wayward Magelone would be vis-à-vis de rien," Hildegard added.
"I do not think so; it would only be the exchange of a lover for her. Look there!" said Hedwig. She had observed in the mirror that Otto had arisen from the table, where he had been reading the papers, and had joined Magelone.
Hildegard smiled with an air of superiority. "Never fear," she said, with conviction. "Magelone was very well suited for Johann Leopold, unamiable and misanthropic as he was; but if Otto is ever the heir, he may fairly look to make a brilliant match, which he will do. I know our brother."
She might not have been so very sure if she had heard the conversation in the window-recess.