"'Hangen und Bangen
In schwebender Pein'?
"One morning a peasant lad came running into the yard, bringing a letter for Susanna; the old mam'selle at the forge had sent him, he said. I met him on the steps, just as I was coming in from the garden, and bade Brockelmann go up to Susanna with the note, which was written on the finest letter-paper. The boy trotted away, and I sat down with Anna Maria in the sitting-room. In a few minutes Susanna's light step was heard in the hall, and she entered the room in haste.
"'I must beg you for a carriage, Fräulein Anna Maria!' she cried, out of breath; 'my old Isa is ill: I must go to her.'
"Anna Maria put down her pen, rather unwillingly, at this disturbance; she had been making out accounts.
"'But, Susanna, how often have I requested you not to walk so fast? You are out of breath again.'
"'Shall we not find out first what is the matter with Isa?' said I, for all at once Klaus's words, 'Hold your hands over this girl!' fell heavily on my soul. Klaus had asked it of me. Klaus was no child; he was a calm, strong-willed man, and he was going to make her his wife, and I knew he would accuse me, bitterly accuse me, if a hair of her head were hurt.
"'It might be a contagious disease, Susanna,' I continued, with all the decision at my command, as her eyes sparkled at my opposition.
"'And what if it were the plague?' she cried, and clinched her little hands, and swung her foot impatiently under the folds of her dress.
"Anna Maria stood up. 'For shame, Susanna! I think you are quite right to wish to take care of Isa; it would be unnatural if you did not have this desire. But you have scarcely recovered, and a long stay in that musty little sick-room would be poison to you; and besides, as Aunt Rosamond says, the disease may be contagious; we must find out about it first.'
"'And meanwhile she may grow worse and die!' cried Susanna passionately. 'What if I do take the disease? I must go to her!' And bursting into tears, she threw herself into a chair, and buried her head in the cushions. Anna Maria went up to her and bent over her.