Freyer looked as if he did not understand him.
"If this other of whom you speak--had come--to nurse and stay with you?" the pastor continued.
Freyer raised himself a little--a blissful presentiment flitted over his face like the coming of dawn.
"Suppose that your eyes did not deceive you?" the burgomaster now added gently.
"Am I not dreaming--was it true--was it possible?"
"If you don't excite yourself and will keep perfectly calm," said the physician, "I will bring--your wife!"
"My--wife? You are driving me mad. I have no wife."
"No wife--you have no wife?" cried a voice as if from the depths of an ocean of love and anguish, as the unhappy woman who had forced her own husband to disown her, sank sobbing before him.
A cry--"my dove!" and his head drooped on her breast
A breathless silence pervaded the room. Every one's hands were clasped in silent prayer. No one knew whether the moment was fraught with life or death.