"Ah, Lena," said Frau Dörr to herself and then she added: "The good Lord will do that too, Frau Nimptsch, I know him, and I have never seen any one come to grief that was like Lena and that had such a heart and such hands as she has."
The old woman nodded and one could see that some pleasant picture was in her mind.
So the minutes passed away and when Lena came back and knocked on the door of the corridor, Frau Dörr was still sitting on the footstool and holding her old friend's hand. And only when she heard Lena knock did she lay down Frau Nimptsch's hand and go to open the door.
Lena was still out of breath. "He will be here right away.... He is coming at once."
But Frau Dörr only said: "Oh Lord, the doctors!" and pointed to the dead woman.
[CHAPTER XX]
Katherine's first letter was posted in Cologne and reached Berlin the following morning, according to expectations. The accompanying address had been given by Botho himself, who, smiling and good-humored, held in his hand a rather thick-feeling letter. Three cards faintly written on both sides with a pencil had been put in the envelope, and all of them barely legible, so that Rienäcker went out on the balcony, in order better to decipher the indistinct scrawl.
"Now let us see, Catherine."
And he read:
"Brandenburg a. H., 8 o'clock in the morning.