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264 appeared? Or could it, after all, be Sabine herself? What could he do, if it were? Well, in any case she would no longer take him for a Philistine. And still, young girls with pure souls were not in the habit of ringing a bachelor's door-bell at such a late hour. Presently there came a second ringing, more insistent than the first. He saw Katharina looking at him, questioning and artless. Altogether too artless, as it suddenly seemed to him. To be sure, it could have something to do with her. Her father? Her brother-in-law—the alleged brother-in-law? A preconcerted affair? An attempt at extortion? Ah! Well, it served him right. How could he have let himself get mixed up in such a mess? Old fool that he was! They shouldn't succeed, however. He wouldn't let them browbeat him. He'd gone through other dangers, the devil take 'em. On a South Sea island, once, a bullet had whistled hard by him. A handsome, blond young naval officer had fallen down dead beside him.

"Don't you want to go see who it is?" Katharina asked, and seemed to be wondering at the singular expression of his face.

"Certainly," he replied. Even when he had reached the door he could still hear her asking, "Who could it be, so late?" The little hypocrite! He pulled the door shut behind him, and looked through the peep-hole out into the hall.

"Who is there?" he asked.

"If you please, sir, is the doctor at home?"

"What do you want? Who are you?"

"If you please, sir, I'm Frau Sommer's servant."

"I don't know any Frau Sommer."

"She's the party on the first floor. Her little child is in a bad way. Can't I speak to the doctor?”

Graesler opened the door with a sigh of relief. He knew that a widow Sommer and her seven-year-old daughter lived in the house. It must at all events be the handsome woman in mourning whom he had met on the stairs only the day before and had even turned to look after for no particular reason.

"I am Doctor Graesler. What do you want?"

"If the Doctor would be so kind—the little girl's forehead is very hot and she's been screaming all along without stopping."

"But I do not practise here in the city. I am only here on my way through. I must ask you please to get another doctor."

"Oh, until we get another one at this time of night—"