He sat down again; after a while his eyes closed, and he fell asleep.
He must have slept about half an hour when he was wakened by the sound
of footsteps.
Standing around him were the physician, Frau Hadebusch, and Philippina.
The doctor said something at which Daniel shook his head. It sounded
like: "Unfortunately I cannot keep the sad news from you." Daniel did
not understand him; he drew his lips apart, and thought: "The idea of
dreaming such disordered stuff!"
"Mother and child are both dead," said the old physician, with tears in
his eyes. "Both dead. It was a boy. Science was powerless; nature was
hostile and the stronger of the two."
"So delicately built," murmured Frau Hadebusch, in a tone of
disapproval, "as delicate as the stem of a plant."
When Daniel at last realised that he was not dreaming, that these were
in bitter truth Philippina's glistening eyes and Frau Hadebusch's
goatish tooth and Dr. Dingolfinger's silvery beard, and that these were
actual words that were being spoken to him, he fell over and became
unconscious.