the willows, the apparition fell on her neck and broke down.


_IV.--The Countess Irma's Atonement_


Dr. Gunther received the first telegraphic news of his friend, Count
Eberhard, having lost the power of speech through a stroke of paralysis.
He was to break the news to Irma. For some time she had felt, through
the physician's reserve and sympathetic kindness, that he could read her
secret. And now she realised that sudden knowledge of her disgrace alone
could have struck down her father, whose vigorous constitution had
always kept illness at arm's length.

They arrived at the manor house before midnight, and were shown into the
sufferer's room. Count Eberhard's eyelids moved quickly when he
recognised Dr. Gunther's voice, and he tried to extend his hand towards
his friend, but it fell heavily on the coverlet. Dr. Gunther seized it
and held it in a firm grasp. Irma knelt down before the bed, and her
father's trembling hand felt over her face, and was wetted by her tears.
Then he quickly withdrew it, as though he had touched a poisonous
animal; he turned away his face and pressed his forehead against the
wall. Now he turned round again, and with a gentle movement indicated
that he wished her to leave the room.

She was with him again next day. He tried painfully to say something to
her, to make her understand by signs--she could not understand. He bit
upon his lips and tried to sit up. His face was changed--it assumed a
strange colour, a strange expression. Irma saw with a shudder what was
happening. She knelt down and laid her cheek upon his hand. He withdrew