"Are you dead, quite dead?" he murmured, closing his eyes again.
They thought he had lost his mind.
"Collect yourself, Bruno," said Helen, passing her hand lightly over the boy's brow and eyes.
Bruno seized the hand and pressed it firmly upon his eyes, while two big tears came oozing out from between the closed lids; then he raised himself, with Oswald's assistance.
"I am quite right again," he said; "have I really been fainting? How long have I been so?"
"Only a little while," replied Oswald, wiping Bruno's face with his handkerchief and setting his clothes in order again.
"You have really frightened us; what in the world was the matter?" asked the baroness.
"I do not know," replied the boy, whose pale cheeks suddenly flashed in deep purple glow; "it came very suddenly. Thank you, thank you, I think I can get on very well if Mr. Stein will help me."
"We'll go back," said the baroness. "How provoking that every little pleasure must be spoilt by some mishap or other."
They made their way slowly up again, and returned, out of temper, through the forest. Felix, who was afraid of taking cold, urged them to make haste; Oswald remarked, dryly, he did not wish to detain the company, and would follow slowly with Bruno. Helen declared her intention to stay with Bruno; and the old baron, who had exhibited throughout very warm, but very useless sympathy, proposed that the company should divide into a vanguard and a rearguard; he meant himself to stay with the latter.