"I think it would be much the best for you to see her yourself," said Walter. "She is really wasting away from day to day."
"Yes, I know that it is so by her hands," added his father; "they grow so thin and small, and are as cold and damp as if she were dying. Ah, Herr Professor, their touch pierces me to the heart! I actually think I can see her suffer, for hands feel so only when they are often wrung in physical or mental anguish."
Johannes put the child from off his knee, and turned away his head, but he could not conceal his emotion from the blind eyes of the schoolmaster.
"Why attempt to suppress a pain that is so natural, dear friend? Go to her quickly. It will do her good."
"Well, then, I will write her a line," said Johannes. "I will ask her whether the sight of me would pain or console her. Good God! I desire nothing but her happiness! You, Walter, will, I know, contrive to let her have my note without her uncle's knowledge. She will, I hope, answer it in the same way."
"Then let us go directly home," said Herr Leonhardt, "that you may write immediately."
The gentlemen started to go.
Käthchen plucked Johannes by his coat. "But, Herr Professor, if you go to see the Fräulein to-morrow, you will not find her."
"How so, Käthchen?" asked Johannes, who had not thought that the child had been listening to the conversation.
"Oh, yes; I know it is true. Frau Willmers from the castle went by here to-day, and whispered to me to tell the gentlemen secretly, if they came to see me to-day, that the Fräulein was going away to-night forever, but I must not let any one know that she had told me, or she should lose her place. And if the Herr Professor did not come, I must tell it to the master, that he might send a messenger to town to the Herr Professor. Frau Willmers cried a great deal, and said she dared not go to the school-house, because,--because the Evil One, who watches the Fräulein so closely, would know it."