sound of a silvery laugh came in.
Susanna was actually laughing, perhaps with her child--I know not. The
next moment the door opened a little way. 'How is Klaus to-day?' she
asked.

"Anna Maria did not answer; her eyes were looking at Klaus; he had
already fallen back, and his fingers began to play, unnaturally, over
the silk quilt.

"I hastened to Susanna. 'He is not very well, my child,' I whispered to
her; 'the fever is returning.' Her face grew grave, and she quietly
closed the door. 'Always the same thing!' I heard her say, disappointed.

"Stuermer came toward evening, almost at the same time with the two
physicians. Susanna was sitting in her blue boudoir, reading. With a
sigh of relief she laid her book on the table when Stuermer was
announced. He entered quickly. 'Well,' said he, sympathetically, and
breathing fast, 'I hear he is not so well again to-day?'

"Susanna gave him her hand. 'So-so, baron,' she replied; 'they are not
very wise about the case. The physicians themselves do not know what
they ought to say, and Anna Maria is so fearfully anxious, and Aunt
Rosamond no less so. They think he is going to die right away. People do
not die so easily, do they?' she asked confidently. 'I know from myself;
I have been delirious, I----'

"She got no further, for our old family physician suddenly came into the
room. I knew what he meant as soon as I looked at him--Klaus was worse.

"Susanna gave him her hand, and went to the bell to order wine, she
said. Isa came with the child and presented it to the old gentleman.
'How is my husband?' asked Susanna. 'He is better, is he not, than Aunt
Rosa's and Anna Maria's funeral faces predict?'

"He did not answer, but looked at her, almost benumbed. At last he said
slowly: 'All is in God's hands. He can still help when we mortals see no
longer any way before us.'

"Susanna sprang up out of the chair in which she had just taken her
seat, the color all gone from her face. Her horrified eyes were fixed on
the old man's face as if they would decipher if those words were truth.
And when she saw his unaltered, sad expression, she began to totter, and
would have fallen to the floor if Edwin Stuermer had not caught her.

"'Is it really so bad?' he asked the doctor, reluctantly, as he carried
the young wife to the couch.

"'The end has come,' he replied, looking after Susanna.

"She had lost consciousness only for a moment. She awoke with a loud
cry, and now all the pass