A Hero of the Pen

Sicknes

found stillness that reigned in these apartments. One room was like another; book-case succeeded book-case, and upon each stood volumes in endless rows. The curtains were le

s easy chair, his arms crossed, he gazed fixedly at the ceiling. Perhaps it was the green window curtains that made his face appear so strangely pale and ill, but his bearing also expressed an infinite weariness, as if both mind and body were wrought to their

at susceptibility peculiar to very nervous persons; Doctor Stephen appeared on t

e room. "I have come to give you another le

mistaken, doctor! I find myself quite well. There m

me unless it were a matter of life or death, but this Frederic

ed himself under that gentleman's valiant protection. "He has not been well for a long time, and I know now just when it began; it was

eric started back affrighted before that unwonted tone. "You would do better to attend to you

ctantly, but the doctor, without paying the least attention to the professor's glance, wh

ns out into the open air, you sit here from morning to night, or rather until far into the night, at you

med his former seat, and appeared not yet to have become master

ng you to your grave if you do not allow yourself some recreation. How often I have preached this to you! But what can one do with

eat patience. "I have always followed you

d until four o'clock in the morning instead of until two. You must possess a good constitution to enable you to do all this; until now it

and, and gazed straight before him. "S

here we have it! You really long for death! There is nothing healthy in

care only with ingratitude! My health is entirely undermined, I myself am best consc

ely. "Only a radical cure can save you; bu

ed the professor abstractedly, faste

way, work with hoe and spade in the garden and keep at it until you grow hungry and thirsty, and can defy every change of weather. Don't look at me in such astonishment, as if I were pointing you out the direct way to the other world; such an en

y must despair of cure; you must yourself know that to carry

uirements. Well then, study on in Heaven's name, and prepare yourse

hen took his hat and went out at the door; but in the ante-room, the giant figure of Frederic had p

deric!" he said. "Give him his usual medicin

reat positiveness, "it is something entirely new, th

rival of my niece answerable for your professor's illness,

s certainly had not been his intention; he only

lly with your master thi

ption of the circumstances that had so impressed him, was beyond his power of langu

then above all see that you get him away from his writing desk today, and out into the open air; b

wn the stairs, and when he had a

and, as usual, alone. Speak with her, doctor, I implore you, once again, and repr

r, that is your business, you mus

ture a slight hint as to this or any other of her independent proceedings, I receive this invariable repl

. "And do you really believe I sh

ried the Frau Doctor, excitedly, "Everybody thinks us accountable for i

ses a single week just to test their own authority. They would soon get tired enough of trying to control her. Jane, with her bluntless, and our professor up there with h