“Doctor, what made you trouble to tell me all that long story? What was it for? Am I to help you with her upbringing?” “And then she's fiery as a volcano,” he went on, never heeding my question. “You asked if no one could ever win her? I don't see why not. She is waiting for her prince, and he hasn't come yet. Again and again she thinks she's found him, and finds out she's wrong; she thought you were the one, especially because you had eyes like an animal. Haha! I say, though, Herr Lieutenant, you ought at least to have brought your uniform with you. It would have been useful now. Why shouldn't she be won? I have seen her wringing her hands with longing for someone to come and take her, carry her away, rule over her, body and soul. Yes ... but he must come from somewhere--turn up suddenly one day, and be something out of the ordinary. I have an idea that Herr Mack is out on an expedition; there's something behind this journey of his. He went off like that once before, and brought a man back with him.” “Brought a man back with him?” “Oh, but he was no good,” said the Doctor, with a wry laugh. “He was a man about my own age, and lame, too, like myself. He wouldn't do for the prince.” “And he went away again? Where did he go?” I asked, looking fixedly at him. “Where? Went away? Oh, I don't know,” he answered confusedly. “Well, well, we've been talking too long about this already. That foot of yours--oh, you can begin to walk in a week's time. _Au revoir._” XIX A woman's voice outside the hut. The blood rushed to my head--it was Edwarda. “Glahn--Glahn is ill, so I have heard.” And my washerwoman answered outside the door: “He's nearly well again now.” That “Glahn--Glahn” went through me to the marrow of my bones; she said my name twice, and it touched me; her voice was clear and ringing. She opened my door without knocking, stepped hastily in, and looked at me. And suddenly all seemed as in the old days. There she was in her dyed jacket and her apron tied low in front, to give a longer waist. I saw it all at once; and her look, her brown face with the eyebrows high-arched into the forehead, the strangely tender expression of her hands, all came on me so strongly that my brain was in a whirl. I have kissed _her_! I thought to myself. I got up and remained standing.