Doctor Fabian, who wore a broad white bandage across his brow, still looked very weak and wasted; but he was sitting up, supported by pillows, and his voice, though faint, was quite clear as he asked--
"What do you wish Waldemar to do?"
"I wish him to be reasonable," returned Witold, emphatically; "to be reasonable, and to thank God that things have gone so well with us; instead of which he goes about tormenting himself, as if he really had a murder on his conscience. I was anxious enough myself for the first two or three days, when your life hung on a thread; but now that the doctor has declared you to be out of danger, one may breathe freely again. There is no good in overdoing a thing, and I can't bear any longer to see the boy wandering about with such a face, and hardly saying a word for hours together."
"But I have told Waldemar over and over again that I alone am to blame for the accident," said the Doctor. "His attention was quite taken up with his horse; he could not see I was standing so near. I was imprudent enough to seize the animal's veins, and it pulled me to the ground."
"You caught hold of Norman's reins?" asked the Squire, petrified with amazement. "You, who will go ten paces out of any horse's way, and have never ventured to approach the wild beast? How did you come to do that?"
Fabian glanced across at his pupil. "I was afraid of an accident," he answered, gently.
"Which would unquestionably have happened," went on Witold. "Waldemar could not have all his five senses about him that evening, to want to leap the ditch just at that spot, at dusk too, and with a horse dead beat! I have always told him that temper of his would get him into trouble some day. Now he has had a lesson--but he takes it rather too much to heart. So, Doctor, you just read him a sermon--you are allowed to talk now, you know--and persuade him to be reasonable. He will do what you tell him now, I am certain."
Saying which, the Squire rose and left the room.
The two who remained behind were silent awhile. At last the Doctor began--
"Did you hear what I have been charged with, Waldemar?"