B554 <=> B556 (BTG XXXI Last sojourn to Earth, p. 555)

“She was, as is said there, ‘in an interesting condition’ and, according also to their expression, was expecting her first-born.

“They, as well as I, were in that capital for an indefinite period, and on the business for the profession of the Active half of this young couple, and they were therefore existing in that hotel in which we were just staying.

“There once resounded from them a very nervous rapping on the wall of my room.

“I instantly ran to them and it turned out there, that ‘himself’ was not at home, for on that very day he had had to go off somewhere; and during this time she had felt faint and, almost without consciousness, had instinctively rapped on my wall.

“When I entered she already felt somewhat better, but imploringly asked me to hurry for a ‘doctor.’

“I instantly of course rushed out into the street. But once there I thought: But where am I to go now?

“Suddenly I remembered that not far from our hotel a being lived whom everybody called ‘doctor’; it was even marked on a metal plate in front of his name on the door that he was a ‘doctor’; and it was to this ‘doctor’ that I ran.

“But it turned out that he was dining, and therefore his servant asked me to wait a little in the drawing-room, having explained to me that the ‘doctor’ would have finished dinner immediately with his guests and would soon be coming out.

“I, of course, sat down in the drawing room awaiting this ‘doctor,’ but it could scarcely be said that I sat very quietly.

“I was sitting there as if, as beings say there, ‘on live coals’ because I was most anxious about the condition of my neighbor.