ouch in his room with the shutters
closed; he did not even read. She often went in to keep him company--he
must not feel lonely--but it seemed almost as though he were just as
pleased to be alone.

When she looked at him furtively over the top of her book in the
semi-obscurity of the room, she could not think he was so ill. It was
probably a disinclination to do anything more than anything else--a
slackness of will-power that made him so apathetic also physically. If
only she could rouse him. She proposed all manner of things, drives
along the coast to all the beautifully situated places in the
neighbourhood, excursions into the mountains--they were so near the
highest summits in the Alps, and it was indescribably beautiful to look
down into the fruitful valleys of the _cinque terre_ that were full of
vineyards--sails in the gulf, during which the boat carries you so
smoothly under the regular strokes of practised boatmen, that you
hardly notice the distance from the shore and still are very soon
swimming far out on the open sea, on that heavenly clear, blue sea,
whose breath liberates the soul. Did he want to fish--there were such
exquisite little gaily-coloured fish there, that are so stupid and
greedy they grab at every bait--would he not shoot ospreys as well? She
positively worried him.

But he always gave her an evasive reply; he did not want to. "I'm
really too tired to-day."

Then she sent for the Italian doctor. But Wolfgang was angry: what
did he want with that quack? He was so disagreeable to the old man that
Kate felt quite ashamed of him. Then she left him alone. Why should she
try to show him kindness if he would not be shown kindness?
She despaired about him. It made her very depressed to think that their
journey also seemed a failure--yes, it was, she saw that more every
day. The charm of novelty that had stirred him up during the first days
had disappeared; now it was as it had been before--worse.

For now the air no longer seemed to agree with him. When they walked
together he frequently stood still and panted, like one who has
difficulty in breathing. She often felt quite terrified when that
happened. "Let us turn round, I know you don't feel well." But this
difficulty in breathing passed away so quickly that she scolded herself
for the excessive anxiety she always felt on his account, an anxiety
that had embittered so many years of her life.

But one night he had another attack, worse than the