For weeks the patient lingered between life and death. The nervous fever which had set in seemed to take away all hope.
Elsbeth scarcely left his bedside. She did not eat, she did not sleep; her whole life seemed to be engrossed by the care of her beloved one.
Her old father let her alone. “She must cure him,” he said, “so that I can question him.”
The gay cousin began to feel that his position was not an enviable one, and, after he had allowed his uncle to pay all his debts, left Helenenthal.
Old Meyerhofer’s body had been fetched by the twins the day after the fire. His mysterious death made a great sensation; the newspapers in the capital spoke of it, and what he had not attained through his whole life—to be celebrated as a hero—was granted to him in death.
But all this time the law was hanging over Paul’s head awaiting his recovery.