"She will let me stay by her," whispered Gretchen with a face of delight.
The Staatsräthin could not help stroking the brow of the charming child, and Frau Willmers felt as if this stranger were an angel, come to lead Ernestine into a better world.
"Such a sick-room I like to see," suddenly said a suppressed bass voice that made Gretchen start. "This is a pretty sight," it continued, and old Heim looked searchingly at Gretchen from beneath his bushy white eyebrows.
The girl would have arisen, but Ernestine would not release her, and Heim motioned to her to be quiet. "You have one hand free, my child, give it to me. I am your guardian's foster-father, and I know what a good child you are. The fellow was right to bring you here,--I would have brought you myself. God bless you!"
He seated himself by the bedside, and a deep expectant silence reigned in the room as he felt Ernestine's pulse. Besides Gretchen's, two other anxious eyes were riveted upon his face. Möllner had just entered noiselessly. "Well, what do you think?" he asked eagerly.
Heim shrugged his shoulders. "I do not think it is typhus. Nevertheless----"
Scarcely had the invalid heard Johannes' voice when she released Gretchen and turned her face towards the spot where Möllner was standing. He approached the bed and leaned over her. She put out her arms to him, but instantly dropped them again, as if, even in her delirium, she would not confess herself conquered. And then she talked wildly on, at times declaring that she could not get rid of the skull,--it would follow her everywhere, and then pleading piteously that she was not yet dead, and they must not put her down into the narrow grave.
"This is the result of a woman's giving herself up to anatomical studies," said Möllner.
"There has been dreadful work with the nerves here, and with the brain too," muttered Heim. "The fever has increased since I have been sitting here. If we could only disabuse her mind of these delirious fancies!"
"I have tried that, but contradiction only excites her."