Outside, there was no end to the questions and answers, as to how all was going on within, and how Käthchen, usually so nimble, could have got under the carriage-wheels. She was indeed a good little child, for it was at last ascertained that she had escaped herself and was perfectly safe, when she turned back to rescue a smaller child, a neighbour's little boy, who was standing still in the middle of the road. The boy escaped, but his poor little preserver was thrown down by the horses, and so severely injured. "She is a dear pet--Käthchen," the men declared; and the women cried, "Oh, if you could see her now lying there in bed, you would believe that she was half in heaven already." She was indeed in heaven, as is every true, pure child; for there is a heaven so close to the earth that only little children can walk beneath its canopy. We have grown up away from it; its glories are veiled from our eyes; it lies below us, like golden clouds around a mountain upon whose summit we are standing. "Well, Käthchen, how are you now?" asked Johannes, stepping up to the bedside. "Very well, thank you," said Käthchen dutifully, as she had been taught to reply. There was something exquisitely touching in the half-unconscious self-control of the child. Johannes was moved by it. He stooped down and kissed the pretty lips. "One more!" she entreated, putting her unhurt arm around his neck. "Our Käthchen," said Herr Leonhardt, "is a good little girl. Do you know, Herr Professor, that the other day she was the only one in the whole school who would give Fräulein von Hartwich a kiss?" At mention of that name a slight flush passed over Johannes's face. He sat down upon the edge of the bed and looked tenderly at the child. "Indeed! Did you do that, you angel?" he whispered, and again he kissed the lips, that seemed dearer to him after what the schoolmaster had told him. Profound silence reigned in the room. The parents looked on without a word. Herr Leonhardt alone saw Johannes's emotion. The little chest rose and fell more regularly. Johannes pillowed the head upon his warm, soft hand, and the child dropped asleep beneath the gentle gaze of her protector. He looked at the clock. The surgeon, whom the countess was to send, could not arrive for a long while yet. Nevertheless, he determined to wait for him. "Husband," whispered Frau Keller, "I have a strange thought. When the schoolmaster said just now that Käthi had kissed the Hartwich, I suddenly remembered how the child came home and told me all about it, and complained that the other children had jeered her, and told her that something would certainly happen to her,--that the Hartwich would bewitch her! 'Sh!--be still!--don't let the schoolmaster hear; he would be angry; but, for the life of me, I can't help thinking it very strange!"