"Max," said he, abruptly, "so far as I am aware, Councillor Moser has no private fortune."
"What in the world has that to do with me?"
"Well, I was thinking of your marriage programme--'Clause No. I--Money.'"
Dr. Brunnow jumped up from his sofa-corner, and stared at his friend in astonishment.
"What can you be thinking of? Agnes Moser is going to be a nun."
"So I have heard; and a convent education would hardly go well with the easy, comfortable sort of life you hope to lead after marriage. Over-refinement in a wife would be rather in your way, and as to the practical qualities of a housewife and the robust health----"
"It is not needful that I should hear all this from your sage lips. I know it well enough without being told," broke out Max, in a rage. "Really, I cannot understand how you can draw inferences so unfounded. You fancy everybody must be in love, because you and your Gabrielle are romantically attached. We are not thinking of such folly, but that is the reward one gets for trying to help a friend in need. The purest intentions are suspected. Agnes Moser and I--ridiculous!"
Winterfeld had some trouble in smoothing his friend's ruffled feathers, but succeeded at length. The doctor condescended to forget the absurd suggestion which had affronted him, and promised his help in the present emergency. Shortly after this he went away, taking his accustomed road to his patient's house.
The sick woman found herself in excellent case, thanks to the zeal with which she was tended in two distinct ways. Her doctor's treatment met with a success on which he himself at first had hardly dared to count. A most decided change for the better had taken place in her condition. There was good reason now to hope for her complete restoration to health, and to-day the invalid had been able to enjoy the warm sunshine, sitting for half an hour in the little garden which surrounded the cottage.
In this small enclosure Dr. Brunnow and Fräulein Moser were pacing, very amicably as it appeared. A certain intimacy had sprung up between the two during the few weeks of their acquaintance, the unreserve and freedom from constraint which marked their intercourse being mainly based on the conviction entertained by both that neither cared in the least for the other. Agnes, indeed, cherished a serious intention of rescuing the young surgeon from the slough of worldliness and unbelief in which he was plunged, and the more unsuccessful her efforts to that end appeared, the more persistently did she renew them. That there might be peril for herself in this work of redemption, never occurred to her. The dangers to which her heart might possibly one day be exposed from masculine seductions had been represented to her in the guise of flattery, of polite attentions, of sweet insinuating speeches. Had she detected any approach to these, she would have taken fright, and have withdrawn in the utmost haste; but from first to last Dr. Brunnow had shown himself rough and altogether regardless of her feelings. He could even, on occasions, be absolutely rude; and it was to this trust-inspiring characteristic alone he owed it that the young girl held his company to be devoid of danger.