"'Why did you run away so suddenly, my child? Do you know that you may have made yourself ill and miserable for life by this recklessness?'
"Silence again, but the breathing grew heavy and loud.
"'You are an obstinate, naughty child!' I continued. You frighten the people who love you half to death, and sin against yourself in an unheard-of manner!'
"The old actress meanwhile stood with folded arms, and an indescribable smile played about her mouth.
"'Are you well enough to get up and drive home with me, Susanna?' I asked.
"'No!' cried the old woman. 'Why should she go to you again? Sooner or later they will be sure to show her the door!'
"'Susanna, Klaus is below; he has been anxious about you; and Anna Maria is impatiently waiting at home. Be reasonable, be good; you owe us an explanation.'
"But in place of an answer a violent fit of coughing followed; she suddenly began to toss about and clutch at the air, and her eyes looked over at me, large and fixed, strangely unconscious. The old actress fell on the bed with a piercing cry, and wound her arms about the girl. 'Oh, Lord, she is dying!'
"Had Klaus heard this cry? I know not; I only know that all at once he was in the room, and pushed the old woman away from the bed, and that that moment decided the fate of two human beings. All that had been fermenting in him for weeks, the stream of his passion which had been wearily held back by cold reason, was set free by the sight of the girl lying thus unconscious. No more restraint was possible; he threw his arms about her, he kissed the little weak hands, the dark hair; he called her his bride, his wife, his beloved; never again, never, should she go from his heart, who was dearer to him than all the world! In dumb horror I heard these impetuous words rush on my ears. Thank God, Isabella Pfannenschmidt had left the room; she had evidently rushed out for a restorative, for tea or water.
"I laid a heavy hand on the man's shoulder. 'Are you mad, Klaus? Do you not see that she is sicker than ever?' Susanna now lay in his arms, really swooning; her head had fallen on his shoulder, and the small face, like that of a slumbering child, showed a slight smile on the lips.