stand still when thus called upon. He pulled his hat further down on his forehead, and mumbled a few words of incoherent apology.
"Let me tell you too," said Vincenz, in a studiously quiet voice, "that if you ever again dare to address a single word of any sort to Fräulein Mohr, I shall denounce you as a blackguard and a villain; and at the first hint of impertinence, I shall thrash you before the eyes of anybody who will take the trouble to look on. Is that quite distinct to you?"
"Quite," muttered the Roumanian, quaking in his shoes.
Whatever harm the fall might have done to his constitution, it certainly had had the salutary effect of sobering him completely. All his blustering self-confidence of five minutes ago was vanished, leaving no trace behind it. They were of much the same stature, the Roumanian and the German, yet the short-sighted lawyer looked by far the grander man of the two.
Dr Kokovics seemed to have shrunk to half his size, as he turned and slunk away among the rocks, leaving his paper lamps abandoned to their fate. No red and blue lights will to-night rejoice the fifty learned men. Here the lamps will hang forgotten, until the rain has washed away the blue and red colour, and the wind has torn them to fragments.
Dr Kokovics waited until he had got one rock between him and his late enemy, and then, as a parting shot, he called back across this rampart –
"Good evening, valiant knight! No doubt you will now enjoy the favours which your confounded fists have taken away from me. The flower of beauty to the conqueror! Such are the fortunes of war!"
Vincenz clenched his hand and made a step forward, but the doctor was flitting away like a black ghost in a hurry; and he turned back with a contemptuous shrug of his shoulders. Gretchen was leaning against a rock – her face very pale, and her lips twitching convulsively.
"I am afraid you have had a great fright," he said, looking at her anxiously.
"No, it is nothing," she managed to say with difficulty. She made a step forward, meaning to reassure him as to her strength, but stumbled and caught hold of the rock.
"I shall rest a minute," she said faintly. "I don't think I could walk just yet."
"Upon this stone, then," said Vincenz, as, with fingers as deft and delicate as those of a woman, he cleared off the loose sticks which encumbered the low rock beside her.
"Thank you," said Gretchen, as she sat down; she would have liked to say more, but she was not sure of her voice.
Dr Komers did not sit down; he stood some paces away from her, reflecting what else he could do for her comfort, for it was evident that she was both frightened and faint. He could hear her teeth chattering; and the thought that she might suddenly be taken ill terrified him beyond measure. The only woman he was intimately acquainted with, his sister Anna, had given him frequent and alarming examples of the frailty of the female constitution. His coat was the only available wrap, and taking it off, he put it over her knees and feet. "If you don't mind," he said, apologetically.
"Thank you," she said again; then after a pause, "How did you find me here?"
