“That’s her lookout!” he shouted. “Let her be, she knows quite well what she is doing.”
At the same moment that Paul was lifted from the cart a troop of servants came from the gate carrying his father’s corpse.
One after the other the two bodies were carried into the White House, and the dog went whining and sniffing after them. It was a sad procession.
Elsbeth had Paul carried into her own bedroom, locked the door, and seated herself near the bed.
Vainly the aunts implored to be let in.
At eleven o’clock the doctor came, and declared himself willing to stay with his patient till next morning. He had evidently come prepared for it, for he was an old friend of the house and one of the wedding guests. Meanwhile they were to telegraph for a nurse.
“May I not stay with him?” asked Elsbeth.
“If you can,” he answered, astonished.
“I can,” she answered, with a mysterious smile.
The aunts knocked again. “Spare yourself, child,” they cried through the chink of the door; “you must dress—you must go to the register-office. The vicar has come.”