Ella looked at Dr. Delano, and whispered, “I’ll bet anything it is the count’s!”
“Nonsense! There hasn’t been time enough.”
“Yes, there has,” said his wife, with the confidence of those most interested in being certain concerning such matters.
The people would not be satisfied. They called loudly for the doctor, who at last came forward and said:
“It is our baby. It is the child of the Social Palace. Every man is its father, every woman its mother, and every child its brother and sister. I will add that it is a strong, beautiful child, perfect in all its parts; but as you will not be satisfied with this, I will say further that it is the son of my dearly-beloved daughter and the Count von Frauenstein.”
“There, I told you so!” said Ella. Dr. Delano sat like a stone, and paid not the slightest heed to his wife; not even when she added maliciously, “You see some people are not so wise as they think they are!”
The demonstrations of delight at the announcement of the birth, were nothing to those that followed the knowledge that the idolized Frauenstein was the happy father. The immense audience rose to their feet—even strangers, who neither knew nor cared anything about it, caught the infection—and waved handkerchiefs, and the shouts, “God bless the child!” “Long live Frauenstein!” “Long live the heir!” rolled through the corridors of the immense building, even to the ears of Clara, who lay in her luxuriant curtained bed holding her precious treasure in her arms, listening to words from Paul that were but the voice of her own heart.
Min sat in an arm-chair nodding, worn out with the excitements of the day, among which had been two rehearsals at the theatre, for she was to play a little part at the coming matinée, and this baby, over which her delight knew no bounds. She was fast asleep when Susie entered with the doctor.
“Clara,” she said, bending over her friend, “he was there on the platform! He heard it all! and I know perfectly well, by the way his wife spoke to him, that she said, ‘I told you so.’”
Clara’s sweet face lighted up with a momentary triumph, and then she said softly, “I am very sorry for him.”