Agnes stopped. She knew by experience that it would be futile to run away; this incorrigible doctor was swift of foot, and could keep up with any pace; so she yielded to his will, and listened.
"You told me that the young Baroness Harder had called on you once," proceeded Max. "If this were to occur again, and if, at the same time. Assessor Winterfeld were accidentally to----"
"Without Madame von Harder's knowledge?" exclaimed Agnes, indignantly. "Never!"
"But just reflect a moment----"
"Never. It would be wrong, it would be sinful. No one but you would ever have thought of such a plan; but I will not be your accomplice, that I will not!"
Fräulein Agnes was crimson with excitement and indignation; the rebuking glance she shot at Dr. Brunnow was so keen that his eyes should have quailed before it; but Max was a hardened offender. He looked at the girl with unequivocal satisfaction.
"Just see the little vixen," he said to himself. "I knew very well that all the saintly submission and lamb-like patience were only learned by rote. Get this confounded convent and its teachings once fairly into the background, and a very tolerable little specimen of nature comes to light. I must alter my tactics.--So you will not consent?" he added aloud.
"No!" declared Agnes, in a tone which conveyed twenty protests.
Max put on a look of dejected resignation.
"Then the evil must take its course. I have tried, by every means in my power, to keep my friend from any desperate step, and I hoped, by your help, I might succeed in obtaining for him, at least, a farewell meeting with his betrothed. If he is to be robbed of this last consolation, I will not answer for the consequences. It is more than likely he will take his own life."