Читать книгу No Way Home - Bowen Marjorie - Страница 13

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When Dr. Gutke returned, late that afternoon, to the Badhaus, Florio did not disdain to be present in the large public parlour and to listen to the landlord discreetly question him. The lady, this Madame Daun, as she termed herself, was his tenant, her position was peculiar, could he be of any service to her? Did she intend to stay long at Wilhelmsruhe? The nervous young physician was unsure of his ground. He had not discovered any symptoms of any illness known to him in the languid lady; her pulse, her heart, her lungs offered no hint of danger, but her spirits were very sunk and the chamber woman said that she fainted continually.

Dr. Gutke had left advice and medicine at Wilhelmsruhe. He could not, he declared, again visit the isolated hunting box, he was obliged to return to Stuttgart, though the fee offered to him by Madame Daun had been so high that he had refused to take more than half of it. "I have no desire," he admitted, "to be involved in this mystery."

Florio endeavoured to learn from him the details of this strange establishment, but he seemed afraid of speaking, and soon made an awkward withdrawal.

"You observe," remarked the landlord of the Badhaus with a certain triumph, "how he has been impressed. Ah, how regrettable that he must depart—who, then, will succour this poor creature? I do not care for my responsibility in this perplexing affair."

"If this stranger is under the protection of your reigning prince he will see to her needs," replied Florio, with an indifference not altogether assumed.

He was vexed at his own lassitude that prevented him from at once visiting Wilhelmsruhe, but he had not the strength or the spirit for that enterprise that would have to be so delicately conducted. He felt weary and depressed, unwilling to ascend to the austere alien chamber; he, as all others in this comedy of travellers, was beginning to feel an acute distaste at this moving from place to place in foreign countries, with no contact with the normal life that flowed past them without more than a stare or a prying question. He could not sleep in the austere bed, yet dreams passed rapidly before his wakeful eyes.