"I should have said nothing before him," said the great consumption doctor slowly. "I should have told you afterwards."
"Ah, he would have understood everything!" exclaimed the woman sorrowfully.
"Is he so ill, then?"
"Very, very ill, Herr Doctor."
"For how long?"
"For a year."
"And how old is he?"
"Twenty-five, Herr Doctor; I was twenty when I had him," she declared, without circumlocution.
"Have you ever suffered from what he is suffering, Madame?" asked the doctor coldly.