"Susanna gave him her hand, and went to the bell to order wine, she said. Isa came with the child and presented it to the old gentleman. 'How is my husband?' asked Susanna. 'He is better, is he not, than Aunt Rosa's and Anna Maria's funeral faces predict?'
"He did not answer, but looked at her, almost benumbed. At last he said slowly: 'All is in God's hands. He can still help when we mortals see no longer any way before us.'
"Susanna sprang up out of the chair in which she had just taken her seat, the color all gone from her face. Her horrified eyes were fixed on the old man's face as if they would decipher if those words were truth. And when she saw his unaltered, sad expression, she began to totter, and would have fallen to the floor if Edwin Stürmer had not caught her.
"'Is it really so bad?' he asked the doctor, reluctantly, as he carried the young wife to the couch.
"'The end has come,' he replied, looking after Susanna.
"She had lost consciousness only for a moment. She awoke with a loud cry, and now all the passion that dwelt in the delicate woman broke forth in its full force. She screamed, she fell at the doctor's feet; he should not let Klaus die, she could not live without him! She wrung her hands and began to sob, but not a tear flowed from her great eyes. She sprang up and threw herself upon the cradle of the child, whose frightened crying mingled with a terrible sound with her sorrowful laments: 'I will not live if Klaus dies, I will not!'
"'Calm yourself, gracious Frau,' bade the doctor, much shaken; 'think of the child, take care of yourself.'
"'I made him ill,' screamed the young wife. 'I sent him to the city in the rain, in spite of his feeling poorly then; I am guilty of my husband's death!' The lace on her morning dress tore under her convulsively trembling hands; she ran up and down the room, accusing God and demanding death. Silently Isa took the cradle with the child and carried it into another room. Meanwhile Dr. Reuter had poured a few drops of a sedative into a spoon and begged the young wife to take it.
"She pushed the medicine out of his hand. 'I will not!' she cried, sobbing. 'If you knew anything you would have saved Klaus! Oh, if I had only taken care of him! But you did not let me go to his bed once, and now he is dying!'
"'Susanna, control yourself,' said I, severely, as the doctor shrugged his shoulders. 'Is this proper behavior in the hour in which a human life is making its last hard struggle? Surely there should be peace,' I added, weeping.