'If I had only Otto here!' said he.

'I have been severely attacked, Rosalie, but I am now much better: I will go to sleep; that strengthens one.' Smilingly he closed his eyes and lay quite still: I read my prayers, withdrew gently so as not to wake him; he lay there unchanged when I returned.

I sat a little while beside his bed; his hands lay upon the coverlid; I touched them, they were ice-cold.

I was frightened, touched his brow, his face--he was dead! he had died without a death-struggle!" For a long time did they converse about the dead man; it was near midnight when Otto ascended the narrow stairs which led to the little chamber in the roof, where as child and boy he had slept.

All stood here as it had done the year before, only in nicer order.