Fellner rose and kissed the girl. She exclaimed in alarm: "What is the matter with you, father? you are crying." "I?" said Fellner quickly. "What nonsense, my child," and he tried to smile. "Oh!" murmured Mina, "you can say what you like, father, but I felt a tear; and see," she added, "my cheek is wet." Fellner put a hand on her mouth. Mina kissed it. At this the father nearly gave way, but Kugler murmured in his ear: "Be a man, Fellner!" He grasped his brother-in-law's hand. Eleven o'clock struck--never except for a dance or evening party had the family sat up so late. Fellner kissed his wife and the children. "But, surely you are not going out?" said Madame Fellner. "No, my dear." "Your kiss was like a goodbye." "Goodbye for a little while," said the burgomaster, trying to smile. "Don't be uneasy, I am going to work with your brother, that is all." Madame Fellner looked at her brother and he gave a sign of assent. Her husband took her to her bed-room door: "Go to sleep, dear one," he said, "we have much work before us that must be done before morning." She stood where she was until she had seen him enter her brother's room. Madame Fellner spent the night in prayer. This simple woman, whose only eloquence was to say "I love you," found words to implore God for her husband. She prayed so long and ardently, that at length sleep came to her where she knelt; for great was her need of it. When she opened her eyes the first light of the dawn was filtering through the window blinds. Everything seems strange, fantastic, at such an hour. It is neither night nor day and nothing looks as it does at any other time. She gazed around. She felt weak and chilly and afraid. She glanced at the bed--her husband was not there. She rose, but everything danced before her eyes. "Is it possible," she thought, "that sleep overtook him also while he worked? I must go to him." And, groping her way through the passages, which were darker than her own room, she reached his. She knocked on the door. There was no answer. She knocked louder, but all was silent. A third time she knocked and called her husband's name. Then, trembling with anguish, under a premonition of the sight that awaited her, she pushed open the door. Between her and the window, black against the sun's first rays, hung her husband's body suspended above an overturned chair. CHAPTER XXXII QUEEN AUGUSTA All through the night that was so sorrowful for the Fellner family the Baroness von Bülow was travelling rapidly to Berlin, where she arrived about eight o'clock in the morning.