“Which means, that you are to be awake all night,” said Charlotte Benson.  “You have more need of rest than we.  Let Sophie and me take your place.”

Richard looked gratefully and kindly at her, but refused.  The Doctor assured them again that there was no reason for anxiety; that Richard would probably be undisturbed all night; that he himself would come early in the morning.  Then Richard came toward the stairs, and I escaped to my own room.

CHAPTER XII.

PRAEMONITUS, PRAEMUNITUS.

     The fiend whose lantern lights the mead,
       Were better mate than I!

     Scott.

     Fools, when they cannot see their way,
     At once grow desperate,
     Have no resource—­have nothing to propose—­
     But fix a dull eye of dismay
     Upon the final close. 
     Success to the stout heart, say I,
     That sees its fate, and can defy!

     Faust.

Two weeks later, and things had not stood still; they rarely do, when there is so much at hand, and ripe for mischief; seventeen does not take up the practice of wisdom voluntarily.  I do not think I was very different from other girls of seventeen, and I cannot blame myself very much that I spent all these days in a dream of bliss and folly; how could it have been otherwise, situated exactly as we were?  This is the way our days were passed.  Mr. Langenau was better, but still not able to leave his room.  He was the hero, as a matter of course, and little besides his sufferings, his condition, and his prospects, was talked of at the table; which had the effect of making Kilian stay away two nights out of three, and of alienating Richard altogether.  Richard went to town on Monday morning after the accident occurred, and it was now Friday of the following week, and he had not come back.

It was a little dull for Mary Leighton and for Henrietta, perhaps; possibly for Charlotte Benson, but she did not seem to mind it much; and I had never found R——­ so enchanting as that fortnight.  Charlotte Benson liked to be Florence Nightingale in little, it was very plain; and naturally nothing made me so happy as to be permitted to minister to the wants of the (it must be confessed) frequently unreasonable sufferer.  For the first few days, while he was confined to his bed, of course Charlotte and I were obliged to content ourselves with the sending of messages, the arranging of bouquets, the concocting of soups and jellies, and all the other coddling processes at our command.  But when Mr. Langenau was able to sit up, Sophie (at the instance of Charlotte Benson, for she seemed to have renounced diplomacy herself,) arranged that the bed should be taken away during the daytime, and brought back again at night, and that Mr. Langenau should lie on the sofa through the day.  This made it possible for us to be in the room, even without Sophie, though