"Will you come with me, then?"
Raven turned, and took leave of the other gentlemen briefly; then with the doctor he mounted the stairs which led to his own private apartments.
"Who is that gentleman, may I ask?" said the Superintendent, looking after the pair as they disappeared from view.
"A most agreeable person," replied the Councillor, with an important air; "a colleague of Dr. Brunnow's, and a very near friend, I should suppose, for he seems to take a great interest in him."
"Oh, oh, a friend of Dr. Brunnow's! I thought the young man had no friends or acquaintances here, now that Assessor Winterfeld has left. Has the gentleman--Dr. Franz, I think you said--paid frequent visits to the patient?"
"No; he came to-day for the first time, but he is to call again to-morrow. I must say he thanked me most warmly for my disinterested kindness, and alluded in very delicate terms to the embarrassments which the presence--the involuntary presence, it is true--of the young man in my house must have brought upon me. An instance of the noblest self-abnegation he styled my conduct in this matter. An exceedingly agreeable person, and a clever doctor too; I could see that at a glance. My instinct in such matters rarely deceives me."
"That I can well believe," returned the Superintendent, about whose lips there played a smile half derisive, half pitying. "This exceedingly agreeable person seems to have found as prompt favour in the Governor's eyes as in yours. It is not the Baron's way, in general, to introduce a complete stranger to his private apartments in this unceremonious manner. Perhaps he was not sorry to withdraw this Dr. Franz from my society."
"Why should he wish that?" asked the Councillor, unsuspiciously. "His Excellency merely desires to obtain some reliable information as to Dr. Brunnow's state."
"Of course; and I have no doubt such information will be amply afforded him. Good evening, Councillor. Don't push the abnegation business too far. They may be asking too much of you one of these days."
With this piece of advice the Superintendent went off, and the Councillor, to whom his words were as Greek, shook his head with dignified gravity at the other's light speech; then, secure beneath the ægis of his infallible instinct, he returned to his own dwelling. The Governor and his companion had meanwhile reached the upper story, and entered the former's apartments. Raven impatiently signed to the servants to withdraw, gave brief orders that he was on no pretext to be disturbed, and shut himself in his study with Brunnow.