a man
who has once possessed her, would rather die than consent to a
separation. If _I_ say this, who knows tolerably well what beautiful
women are, and that in the end one gets tired of even the fairest, it
means something. She probably perceived what an impression she made
upon me, and that I asked how _she_ had fared with real friendly
solicitude. 'Dear Herr Doctor,' said she, suddenly rising as if to
close the interview, 'I know why you're here. The count wishes to learn
from you whether I'm still in possession of my five senses, or if I run
any risk of losing one or more of them. Give yourself no anxiety about
me, I'm as well as a fish in water, and what I lack to be able to enjoy
my life as thoughtlessly as most other women, is not to be had from an
apothecary or discovered anywhere between heaven and earth. The count
has doubtless told you that I should like to go away from here, and be
free again. If you could persuade him to consent to this, it would be
the best thing you could do and I should be sincerely grateful to you.
Besides, it's more for his sake than my own, that I should like to be
separated from him. I pity him, as I should pity a living man bound to
a corpse. Just feel how cold! She held out her hand to me; it was
really cold enough to startle one. 'Yes, yes,' said she, 'it's always
so; I wish all was over. But what's done can't be undone.'

"Then she talked of indifferent subjects until I took leave, and the
two or three times that I afterwards saw her at dinner, she always wore
the same expression, of immovable cold insensibility to every joy.
During my stay at the castle, I fished for news like a member of the
secret police, questioned all her servants, and even thrust my nose
into things of a tolerably disagreeable nature. In vain. The only
person who perhaps might tell me something, her waiting maid, is as
silent as the grave. I'm just as wise as before, and when this
afternoon I raised the beautiful hand to my lips in farewell, it was no
whit warmer than at my first visit.

"The count, who has some business to do here, wanted to drive me to the
railway station himself. I could not conceal from him that he would be
merely throwing away his money, if he consulted any more of my
colleagues. A slight hint I gave, that he might perhaps regret it if he
insisted upon living under the same roof with her, that the sickness
which was impending might be averted by leaving her entirely to
herself, by a