"As well as I remember, you told me that she begged you not to forsake her," said Herr Leonhardt. "So she did, old friend. But how do I know how she thinks and feels now, since she never visits you without such anxious inquiries beforehand as to whether I am with you, and never, too, unless accompanied by Gleissert?" "That is all her uncle's doings," said Walter. "You cannot think, Herr Professor, how he watches and guards her. Since I have been allowed to study in her laboratory, I have never for one moment been alone with her,--that devil is always present. And it was with difficulty that she obtained permission for me to come to the castle. Willmers says that there was a three-days fight about it, but Fräulein Ernestine had made up her mind, and he was at last obliged to give way. It is high time that something were done for the unfortunate lady, for since the completion of her last treatise she has been utterly exhausted, and if she goes on thus much longer she will kill herself." "I have known that for a long time," said Johannes with a profound sigh, "but what is to be done? I can make no impression either upon her head or heart. My solitary hope now lies in separating her from that villain." "I think it would be much the best for you to see her yourself," said Walter. "She is really wasting away from day to day." "Yes, I know that it is so by her hands," added his father; "they grow so thin and small, and are as cold and damp as if she were dying. Ah, Herr Professor, their touch pierces me to the heart! I actually think I can see her suffer, for hands feel so only when they are often wrung in physical or mental anguish." Johannes put the child from off his knee, and turned away his head, but he could not conceal his emotion from the blind eyes of the schoolmaster. "Why attempt to suppress a pain that is so natural, dear friend? Go to her quickly. It will do her good." "Well, then, I will write her a line," said Johannes. "I will ask her whether the sight of me would pain or console her. Good God! I desire nothing but her happiness! You, Walter, will, I know, contrive to let her have my note without her uncle's knowledge. She will, I hope, answer it in the same way." "Then let us go directly home," said Herr Leonhardt, "that you may write immediately." The gentlemen started to go. Käthchen plucked Johannes by his coat. "But, Herr Professor, if you go to see the Fräulein to-morrow, you will not find her." "How so, Käthchen?" asked Johannes, who had not thought that the child had been listening to the conversation.