art of my head--for I had taken off my wig as usual to
save it--and now the whole swarm flew at my face. That was enough for me.
Quickly I rolled out of bed, freed myself from the blanket, wriggled out
of the wet sheets, and reached the door, for the devil was at my heels. I
got out at the door, and striking out at my assailants blindly and madly,
shrieked for help. God be praised and thanked for the existence of the
water-doctor--his name is Ehrfurcht--he came to my rescue, and, taking me
to another room, fetched me my clothes, and so after a few hours' rest I
was able to go down to the dining-room-_salong_ as they call it--but
I still had half a bushel of bee-stings in my body. I began to speak to
the gentlemen, and they did nothing but laugh. Why did they laugh,
Charles? You don't know, nor do I. I turned to one of the ladies, and
spoke to her in a friendly way about the weather; she blushed. What was
there in the weather to make her red? I can't tell, nor can you,
Charles. I spoke to the lady who sings, and asked her very politely to
let us hear the beautiful song which she sings every evening. What did
she do, Charles? She turned her back upon me! I now busied myself with
my own thoughts, but the water-doctor came up to me, and said
courteously: 'Don't be angry with me, Mr. Bailiff, but you've made
yourself very remarkable this afternoon.' 'How?' I asked. 'Miss von
Hinkefuss was crossing the passage when you ran out of your room, and
she has told every one else in strict confidence.' 'And so,' I said,
'you give me no sympathy, the gentlemen laugh at me, and the ladies turn
their pretty backs upon me. No, I didn't come here for that! If Miss von
Hinkefuss had met _me_, if half a bushel of bee-stings had been planted
in _her_ body, I should have asked her every morning with the utmost
propriety how she was. But let her alone! There is no market where
people can buy kind-heartedness! Come away, doctor, and pull the stings
out of my body.' He said he couldn't do it. 'What!' I asked, 'can't you
pull bee-stings out of a man's skin?' 'No,' he said, 'that is to say, I
_can_ do it, but I dare not, for that is an operation such as surgeons
perform, and I have no diploma for surgery from the Mecklenburg
government.' 'What?' I asked, 'you are allowed to draw gout out of my
bones, but it is illegal for you to draw a bee-sting out of my skin? You
dare not meddle with the outer skin which you can see, and yet you
presume to attack