But when presently there was another little fluttering exclamation, Ilse, with great decision, laid down her gloomy drying-cloth and sought out Johann, Herr Dremmel not having come in, and bade him harness the horses and fetch Frau Dosch. "The first thing," said Frau Dosch, arriving two hours later, surprisingly brisk and business-like considering her age and the heat, "the first thing is to plait your hair in two plaits." And still later, when Ingeborg had left off pretending or trying to be anything at all, when courage and unselfishness and stoicism and a desire to please Robert--who was Robert?--were like toys for drawing-room games, shoved aside in these grips with death, Frau Dosch nodded her head philosophically while she ate and drank from the trays Ilse kept on bringing her, and said at regular intervals, "_Ja, ja_--was sein muss sein muss." Such were the consolations of Frau Dosch. CHAPTER XX These things began on Tuesday at midday; and on Wednesday night, so late that bats and moths were busy in the garden and often in the room, Frau Dosch, grown very wispy about the hair and abandoned in the dress, dabbed a bundle of swaddle with a small red face emerging from it down on to the bed beside Ingeborg and said, tired but triumphant, "There!" The great moment had come: the supreme moment of a woman's life. Herr Dremmel was present, dishevelled and moist-eyed; Ilse was present, glowing and hot. It was a boy, a magnificent boy, Frau Dosch pronounced, and the three stood watching for the first ray of _Mutterglück_, the first illumination that was to light the face on the pillow. "There!" said Frau Dosch; but Ingeborg did not open her eyes. "There!" said Frau Dosch again, picking up the bundle and laying it slantwise on Ingeborg's breast and addressing her very loudly. "Frau Pastor--rouse yourself--behold your son--a splendid boy--almost a man already." She took Ingeborg's arm and laid it round the bundle. It slid off and hung over the edge of the bed as before. "Tut, tut!" said Frau Dosch, becoming scandalised: and stooping down she shouted into Ingeborg's ear: "Frau Pastor--wake up--look at your son--a magnificent fellow--with a chest, I tell you--oh, but he will break the hearts of the maidens he will--" Still the blankest indifference on the face on the pillow. Herr Dremmel knelt down so as to be on a level with it, and took the limp damp hand hanging down in his and patted it. "Little wife," he said in German, "it is all over. Open your eyes and rejoice with me in our new happiness. You have given me a son." "_Ja eben_," said Frau Dosch emphatically. "You have filled my cup with joy." "_Ja eben_," said Frau Dosch, still louder. "Open your eyes, and welcome him to his mother's heart." "_Ja eben_" said Frau Dosch indignantly.