'No, my dear, it cannot be,' he replied, trying to restrain himself, thinking of her illness, and remembering her danger.
'I want Dr. Amati,' she said in a loud voice, raising her head from the pillow with a peculiar motion. It seemed, indeed, to the old man that she had ground her teeth after having announced for the fourth time her strange demand.
'It is not possible, my dear,' he muttered, trying to hold in his own burning rage.
'Go and call Dr. Amati! Go at once!' she shouted, as if giving him an order.
'You are mad!' he cried out, rising from his seat. 'I will never go.'
'Yes, yes, you will!' she yelled, rising on the pillow, clutching at the sheet with her clenched hands; 'you will go at once, and bring him here directly. I want Amati beside me—always with me. Go at once!'
'No, no, I will not!' he shouted in his turn, not knowing what he was doing. 'He will never put a foot in here while I am alive.'
Margherita had run in, quite upset, in despair a second time, but still more despairing from the new turn the illness had taken. Hardly had Bianca Maria seen her, when she called out to her:
'Margherita, if you love me, go and call Dr. Amati.'