So saying, he left the room. Christine closed the entrance-door behind him, and then came back.
"He knows what he is about," said she. "He orders and dictates as though no one else had a right to say a word here. What do you think of the doctor, Fräulein?"
"I think him very irreligious," declared the young lady, emphatically.
"Ah, yes; none of your medical men are over-pious," remarked Christine.
"And so young!" went on Agnes, in a tone which implied the weightiest accusation.
"I expected to see an older man myself, but he looks clever, and he certainly is very punctual. He had promised to be here at nine, and on the stroke of nine there he was outside in the corridor. I can't think where your papa is! Something must have happened to detain him, for he wished to be present at the interview."
"The doctor said he had spoken to my father. Do you think I ought to take the medicine, Christine?"
"Of course you must take it. That is what we had the doctor here for. I like him, in spite of that bearish way of his. You mind what I say. Miss Agnes--he will set you all to rights again."
It remained doubtful whether Agnes herself shared this opinion. She had taken up the prescription, and was reading it. After a while she laid the paper down, and said, with a little shake of the head:
"I only wish he were not so irreligious!"