The doctor cast a searching glance at the face of the old woman--and then his eye turned to Oswald--but he kept the remark he was going to make to himself, took the light, and examined the face of the sick man.
Oswald took the candle and said: "Please let me help you."
"Thank you," said the doctor, examining the patient
In the mean time Oswald looked more closely at the newcomer. He was a man of from twenty-five to thirty, tall and rather thin, dressed in a simple, comfortable, but elegant summer costume. His head was remarkably well formed, and thickly covered with very dark hair, which refused to curl, and stood like a kind of cap around the firm, somewhat prominent forehead. The nose did not belong to any well-defined class, but it was finely cut and full of expression; so was also the mouth, with its lips sharply defined, and yet delicately formed, as we find them in antique heads, especially in Mercuries, as if they might fully part for the sake of a pleasant, intelligent word. A thick silky beard covered chin and cheeks, harmonizing in color and feature with the hair, and completing the manly fair character of the face. Oswald also noticed, as the doctor was raising the eyelids of his patient, that his hands were of almost womanly delicacy and beauty of form.
"It is as I thought," said Doctor Braun, rising; "an epileptic attack. I can prescribe nothing; nature will help. For the present he must be kept quiet. To-morrow he will be rather weak, but otherwise quite well again."
"Then such attacks are not dangerous?" asked Oswald.
"They can become fatal," replied the doctor, "especially when the patient is a hard drinker, as I presume is the case here. A radical cure is not to be expected, at least not under these circumstances; it is always long and tedious."
"I had made up my mind to spend part of the night here," said Oswald; "but now, I suppose that is not necessary?"
"By no means! Rest, as I said, is all that is required. The man is a widower?" he added, looking around in the room.
"Annie is dead," said Mother Claus; "but I'll take care of Jake. Old people like myself don't need much sleep; we shall soon have time enough to sleep. You can safely go home, young gentleman. You are very good; I always said so. Good-by, doctor; many thanks for Jake, as he can't thank you himself, and perhaps he wouldn't thank you even if he could. Good-by, young master."