"Yes, my darling. I had another patient to see; but now I am free to stay with you until to-morrow at eight,--twelve whole hours. Is not that fine?"
"Fine indeed!" repeated Angelika, and poor Elsa listened to these loving speeches, longing for the time when such happiness should be hers.
"Come," said old Heim, plucking Moritz by the sleeve, "we cannot live upon your pretty speeches to your wife, and they may spoil our appetites. Your mamma begs you to play the part of host at supper."
"Come, Angelika," said Moritz, drawing Angelika's arm through his own. He never took any other woman than his wife to supper.
This was a trying moment for Elsa, for it was her usual fate to be left sitting still when supper was ready or a dance was in prospect. She must either join herself to some other unfortunate, similarly neglected, or perhaps be offered a left arm by some good-natured man already provided with a lady upon his right. Ah, her knight, her Lohengrün, was not there, he who would one day rescue her forever from this solitude. Where was he? Why did he not come? And in her distress she turned to one of the gentlemen who had just finished smoking and was approaching the circle of ladies. "Do you not know where Professor Möllner is?"
The gentleman was a young assistant surgeon, whom Moritz had taken to the village with him that afternoon. The latter, as he passed, whispered in his ear, "Do not tell."
The young man looked confused, and just then Herbert approached and said maliciously, "You were in Hochstetten this afternoon, where Professor Möllner played his usual part of good Samaritan? I heard you telling Hilsborn about it,--pray favour us too with the interesting story."
He laid his hand, as if unconsciously, upon his sister's shoulder, but its heavy pressure, told her that it was not done either unconsciously or kindly.
"We all know very well that Möllner never allows an insult to pass unpunished," said Hilsborn, "and you should know it, Herr Herbert, better than any of us."
"True, I have had occasion to be convinced of the interest that Möllner takes in Fräulein von Hartwich, although it is by no means so dangerous to correct an erring professor as an enraged mob."