At length the sound of a carriage was heard, followed by the creaking of
the great gate, the carriage passed under the arch, the tread of spurred
boots echoed on the staircase, Emma's door opened, and Emma's arms
enfolded her husband.
It did not escape her notice that Frederic winced when she threw her
arms round him. She asked the cause. Frederic replied with a
cock-and-bull story of a cab accident in which he had slightly sprained
his arm.
The sound of the carriage and the general movement in the house informed
Helen of the baron's arrival. Hastily wrapping herself in a
dressing-gown with her beautiful hair falling loosely over it, she
hurried to greet her brother-in-law whom she loved tenderly. In order
not to disturb the Countess de Chandroz, their grandmother, orders had
been given to keep her wing of the house as quiet as possible.
Madame von Bülow, with the usual penetration of wives, soon guessed that
Frederic's arm was more hurt than he chose to acknowledge. She insisted
that the family doctor, Herr Bodemacker, should be sent for, and
Frederic, who knew by the pain he suffered, that the bandage must have
been displaced during his journey, made no objection. He only begged her
to keep quiet while he went to his own room for the bath he had ordered,
saying that it would be much better for the doctor to follow him there
and decide which of his two hundred and eighty-two bones required
attention.
The question of importance was to keep the baroness in ignorance as to
the serious nature of the wound. With the help of Hans and the
connivance of the doctor this would be easy. The bath was a marvellous
help, and Emma allowed him to go to his room without suspecting the real
cause of his requiring it.
When the doctor arrived, Frederic astonished Hans by explaining that the
evening before he had received a sword wound which had laid open his
arm, that the bandage must have slipped in the train, and that it, his
coat, and his shirt were all soaked in blood.
The doctor slit the sleeve the whole way up, and then cut it clear at
the top. Frederic then was told to plunge his arm into the warm water of
the bath which enabled the doctor to remove the coat sleeve. He then
loosened the shirt sleeve by sponging it with the warm water, and
finally, cutting it away at the shoulder, was able to expose the wound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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