"Do not excite yourself, my dear colleague," implored Dr. Berndt, gently. "No agitation, I beg. Quiet, rest, and the greatest caution! But now that you are yourself again, is there no wish, no desire you would like to express?"
His face said plainly that he expected nothing less than a last will or dying bequest.
Ignoring such subjects, however, the patient replied with perfect equanimity: "Certainly; I have the most pressing wish and desire for something to eat."
"To eat!" asked the doctor, in surprise. "To eat! Well, if you like, we may try a little beef-tea."
"A little won't do," said Max. "I shall want a great deal; but I think I would rather have something a trifle more substantial than beef-tea. A steak, now--in fact, I could eat two."
"Dear, dear, dear!" exclaimed the little Esculapius, laying his fingers on the sick man's pulse, for he began to think his patient was delirious. But Max drew away his hand impatiently.
"Don't make such a fuss about that crack in my head-piece. It will be well in a week. I know my constitution."
Dr. Berndt looked with commiseration at this poor deluded creature, who had so little knowledge of his situation.
"You mistake your condition, my friend. You are very ill, notwithstanding this flicker of vitality. You have lain two whole days prostrated by a violent fever."
"That is no reason why I should not feel very well on the third, when the fever has left me. Flicker of vitality! Do you really imagine I am in danger?"