Johannes offered her his hand with a smile. "Boldly spoken, Fräulein Hartwich,--I thank you! Nevertheless, I must rest under the charge of vanity and arrogance until you declare me innocent, for I only uttered Dr. Heim's honest conviction and my own. You shake your head, and do not comprehend me. I hope you will do so soon. How could I have had the courage to challenge your displeasure by so bold an assertion, had I not been sure that time would justify my pretensions?"
Ernestine motioned to him to be seated. "May I be permitted, sir, to request your name before speaking further with you?"
Johannes cast at her a glance of kindly entreaty. "I pray you allow me to suppress it for the present. I should so like to inspire you with confidence in me for my own sake, without the aid of a name perhaps not unknown to you. Such confidence would be so precious to me. Call it a whim, if you will, but I beg you to indulge me!"
"As you please, sir," said Ernestine with some constraint, looking keenly at him as she spoke. She seemed to be searching in his handsome face for something,--she scarce knew what,--it seemed to suggest some dim recollection to her mind. Then she dropped her glance, as if comparing what she saw with some image in her memory, yet without arriving at any satisfactory conclusion.
Johannes watched every expression of her countenance. No shade of thought passing across that broad white brow escaped him. He gazed at her and almost forgot to speak, she was so wondrously beautiful, this shy, grave girl, pale and suffering from her devotion to the studies to which she was sacrificing herself with such religious zeal. The saddest error would be touching in such a form,--yes, we must bow before it, instead of laughing at it. So thought Johannes as he sat silent before her, and something of what was passing in his mind must have been mirrored in his features, for Ernestine turned away with a shade of embarrassment, and asked suddenly, "Well, sir, and what news do you bring me of Father Heim? Is he still vigorous in mind and body?"
The indifference of her tone rather nettled Johannes. "Yes, Fräulein Hartwich, he is indeed. Beloved and revered by his associates, as well as by his patients, the evening of his days is calm and cheerful."
"I am very glad to hear it. I am bound to him by ties of gratitude, he has done much for me, at one time he saved my life. Therefore I hoped for benefit now from his prescriptions. He is a great practitioner, although he has not quite kept pace in his old age with the march of modern science."
"He certainly is. But he can do nothing for your gravest malady, and therefore he has sent me in his place."
"You are, then, famous for some spécialité. But how can Dr. Heim know that I need such a physician?"
"He does know it, for you were attacked as a child by the malady of which I speak, and Dr. Heim was powerless to effect a cure. Now that he is convinced that my method of cure is efficacious, he has adopted me as his assistant. Therefore I ask you frankly and openly, Will you have me for your physician? Yes or no!"