Several weeks now passed, during which the family awaited the outcome of this strange situation with very varied feelings. The Commandant received a polite communication from General K—, the Count’s uncle. The Count himself wrote from Naples. The enquiries made about him spoke broadly in his favour. In short, the engagement was already considered as almost confirmed, when the Marquise’s indisposition made itself felt again more emphatically than ever. With it she noticed an unaccountable change in her own figure which she revealed to her mother with complete frankness, saying she didn’t know what to think about her condition. The mother, now made extremely anxious about her daughter’s health by such strange symptoms, demanded she seek advice from a doctor. The Marquise, who hoped that her natural health would win through, resisted. She spent several days suffering the acutest pains without following her mother’s advice, until constantly recurring pangs of such a strange nature plunged her into a state of utmost anxiety. She had a doctor fetched who enjoyed the trust of her father, asked him, as her mother was then absent, to sit down on the divan, and after brief introductory remarks jokily divulged what she believed was her condition. The doctor glanced at her with a penetrating look and, after completing a detailed examination, was silent for a while. Then he said with a very serious expression that the Marquise was quite right. When she asked what he meant by this, he told her with utmost clarity and an irrepressible smile, saying that she was absolutely healthy and didn’t require a doctor. At this the Marquise gave him a severe sideways look, pulled the bell-cord and asked him to leave. She spoke softly, as if he wasn’t worthy of being spoken to, murmuring to herself that she didn’t care to be joking with him about things of this nature. Hurt, the doctor replied, trusting that she would always be as disinclined to joke as now, picked up his hat and stick and prepared immediately to take his leave. The Marquise assured him that she would inform her father of these insults. The doctor replied that he could swear to the truth of his statement in court, opened the door, bowed and prepared to leave the room. As he bent to pick up a glove he had dropped on the floor, the Marquise asked, “But doctor, how is it possible?” He replied that he didn’t need to explain the facts of life to her, bowed once more and left.