CHAPTER VII
NEMESIS
A great festival was being held in the Castle of Sonnenburg. It was the sixth birthday of little Prince Maximilian.
The little lad had just recovered from a severe illness; from one of those epidemics especially dangerous to children.
Heinrich during his son's illness had frequently been on the verge of betraying himself. Three doctors had been summoned to the Castle, and not one of them possessed his up-to-date knowledge. And all he could do was to listen to their disputes while they were in consultation. How he would have liked to exclaim: "You are charlatans, the whole lot of you! Poisoners! Ignoramuses! I can diagnose the case quite well; you can't."
He had to bury his knowledge out of sight. Two or three pillules administered in homœopathic doses would immediately have cured the child's weakness, and he could not give them to him. He was not allowed to save his own child. He was obliged to look on while his colleagues experimented with, tortured, the child. He could not reveal to them that he was a physician. Ah, ah!—then where is your diploma? And his diploma was in the name of Heinrich Klausner.
And self love was stronger in him than paternal love. So he was silent, and looked on cold-bloodedly at the torments of his child.
And at last nature and a mother's prayers prevailed against the severity of the disease. Little Max, despite the united operations of three specialists, actually recovered. It was on his very birthday that he was permitted to leave his room.
That day was kept in the Castle as a joyful festival. The grandparents, the Prince of Sonnenburg and his wife, had come to the house. The feast had been a calm and quiet rejoicing from beginning to end. No guests outside the family had been invited.
At the end of the meal, just as the father, his face radiant with happiness, had risen with a glass of foaming champagne to propose the health of the grandparents, the Major Domo came in from the ante-chamber and whispered something in the ear of the young Princess.
For an instant, Ingola angrily contracted her brows, but the next moment a benevolent smile lit up her face.