Without thinking he took an orange segment and put it in his mouth. The cold, sour juice revived him somewhat. At first, however, he did not know what he had in his mouth, and he removed the chewed-up segment and held it in his hand. After studying it intently for a while, he realised what it was and immediately threw it under the table. Then he put his hand on the sick woman’s arm and said in a pleading, coaxing voice:

‘Calm down, my dear, calm down, I beg you. Here you are, have an orange. You’ll see, everything will be all right. You’ll soon go home. In a few days’ time, you’ll see. Just keep calm and then the doctor will send you home himself, when he sees that you’re calm and well again. You must eat everything and be calm.’

‘No, I can’t, I won’t,’ the poor girl sobbed, ‘not one more day! Not one more hour! I have to leave now! I can’t bear it for another minute: I’m going out of my mind here! I don’t want to go mad, I don’t want to! You’re to blame, all of you, for bringing me here. I have to go home immediately — this very minute! Otherwise it will be too late! Because I’ll go really mad here and then they’ll never let me out! Everybody’s abandoned me and nobody cares. And you don’t want to rescue me either. And I hoped that you would! And now nobody wants to! Who can I turn to, tell me, who can I turn to now? Steinhof, Steinhof! Now I’ll be ashamed to show my face outside. Everyone will point their finger at me, as if I were a murderer! From now on nothing can save me! Everything’s lost! Steinhof! With the crazy people! And all for such nonsense! For such nonsense!’

Her hand was on her forehead all this time, as if she had a headache. Gurdweill asked compassionately: ‘Does your head hurt?’

‘My head hurts! My head hurts all the time! Everything hurts me here! I have to suffer so much! So much! At home I would have recovered long ago, and here I get sicker from day to day! I beg you, my dear, take pity on me, I beg you,’ and she began stroking Gurdweill’s head and cheeks.

‘I cast myself on your mercy, before God, save me! I’ll never forget it! Save me before it’s too late. I’m still young; I want to live. I don’t want to go mad here and stay here for the rest of my life. I can’t tell you how terrible it is here! I go down on my knees to you’ — and she really did go down on her knees — ‘save me while there’s still time.’