'Why have you
harnessed again?'
'The merciful lord has ordered it,' returned Karl, lifting his military
cap with one hand while he held the reins with the other. 'The merciful
lord has walked down the road, and I am to overtake him.'
Therewith Karl turned his pair neatly and the horses trotted slowly
towards the gate.
'Stop, stop!' cried Hilda, running down the steps and following him,
while her mother came after her more slowly.
Karl drew up and looked back.
'Herr von Greifenstein is very ill,' the girl said. 'He will never be
able to drive alone so far--indeed he ought to stay here and you should
go for the doctor.'
She was so much confused that she hardly knew what to say, when her
mother joined her, calmer and more sensible.
'You say that he went out of the gate. How long ago?' inquired the
elder lady.
'It may be five minutes.'
'Did he say anything besides ordering the carriage?'
'He said he was ill and must go home at once, and that he was sorry for
me.'
Frau von Sigmundskron hesitated. It was clear that Greif had not been
so ill as she had at first supposed, or he could not have walked out
alone, ordered the carriage and gone on without support. Karl
interrupted her meditations.
'Merciful ladyships forgive me,' he observed, 'but if he walks farther
he will be more ill.' He gathered the reins and prepared to move on.
'Go, Karl,' said the baroness, and in a moment he was gone.
'Mother--you ought to have gone, too--' Hilda began, looking into her
face with an expression of mingled anxiety and disappointment.
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