on the subject; and she
took no notice, but let her alone. The day of the departure came;
Charlotte's carriage was to take Ottilie the first day as far as a place
where they were well known, where she was to pass the night, and on the
second she would go on in it to the school. It was settled that Nanny
was to accompany her, and remain as her attendant.

This capricious little creature had found her way back to her mistress
after the death of the child, and now hung about her as warmly and
passionately as ever; indeed she seemed, with her loquacity and
attentiveness, as if she wished to make good her past neglect, and
henceforth devote herself entirely to Ottilie's service. She was quite
beside herself now for joy at the thought of traveling with her, and of
seeing strange places, when she had hitherto never been away from the
scene of her birth; and she ran from the castle to the village to carry
the news of her good fortune to her parents and her relations, and to
take leave.

Unluckily for herself, she went, among other places, into a room where
a person was who had the measles, and caught the infection, which came
out upon her at once. The journey could not be postponed. Ottilie
herself was urgent to go. She had traveled once already the same road.
She knew the people of the hotel where she was to sleep. The coachman
from the castle was going with her. There could be nothing to fear.

Charlotte made no opposition. She, too, in thought, was making haste to
be clear of present embarrassments. The rooms which Ottilie had occupied
at the castle she would have prepared for Edward as soon as possible,
and restored to the old state in which they had been before the arrival
of the Captain. The hope of bringing back old happy days burns up again
and again in us, as if it never could be extinguished. And Charlotte was
quite right; there was nothing else for her except to hope as she did.

CHAPTER XVI

When Mittler was come to talk the matter over with Edward, he found him
sitting by himself, with his head supported on his right hand, and his
arm resting on the table. He appeared in great suffering.

"Is your headache troubling you again?" asked Mittler.

"It is troubling me," answered he; "and yet I cannot wish it were not
so, for it reminds me of Ottilie. She too, I say to myself, is also
suffering in the same way at this same moment, and suffering more
perhaps than I; and why cannot I bear it as well as she?