Karl drew up and looked back.
‘Herr von Greifenstein is very ill,’ the girl said. ‘He will never be able to drive alone so far—indeed he ought to stay here and you should go for the doctor.’
She was so much confused that she hardly knew what to say, when her mother joined her, calmer and more sensible.
‘You say that he went out of the gate. How long ago?’ inquired the elder lady.
‘It may be five minutes.’
‘Did he say anything besides ordering the carriage?’
‘He said he was ill and must go home at once, and that he was sorry for me.’
Frau von Sigmundskron hesitated. It was clear that Greif had not been so ill as she had at first supposed, or he could not have walked out alone, ordered the carriage and gone on without support. Karl interrupted her meditations.
‘Merciful ladyships forgive me,’ he observed, ‘but if he walks farther he will be more ill.’ He gathered the reins and prepared to move on.
‘Go, Karl,’ said the baroness, and in a moment he was gone.