"No, Bruno."
"And yet I saw them both so distinctly. They came in hand in hand through that door; Helen dressed in white, with a wreath of dark-red roses in her hair; aunt Berkow in black, and her hair as she always wears it. Aunt Berkow led Helen up to you, and you fell into each other's arms and wept and kissed each other; and then aunt Berkow came to my bed and said: Now, Bruno, now you can go to sleep. Then my eyes closed; it grew dark around me; I sank with the bed lower and lower, and quicker and quicker--then the fright waked me up."
"Do you feel worse, Bruno?" asked Oswald, troubled by these flights of his imagination.
"On the contrary," replied Bruno; "that sleep has done me a great deal of good. My pain is not as bad as before; but I feel very tired. I think I could sleep now."
He turned his head, but a few moments afterwards he started up once more.
"Oswald, will you do me a very, very great favor?"
"Certainly; what is it?"
"Pray dress yourself and go down stairs."
"Not for anything in the world."
"But, I pray you, do it for my sake! You see I am much better now, and I should like to sleep, and I am going to sleep. You cannot help me when I am sleeping?"