So they got up and went home, and Karl forgot
the lay-figure, leaving it in busy motionlessness all night before the
easel.
"When Teufelsbuerst saw it, he turned and fled with a cry that brought his
daughter to his help. He rushed past her, able only to articulate:
"The vampire! The vampire! Painting!'
"Far more courageous than he, because her conscience was more peaceful,
Lilith passed on to the studio. She too recoiled a step or two when she
saw the figure; but with the sight of the back of Karl, as she supposed it
to be, came the longing to see the face that was on the other side. So she
crept round and round by the wall, as far off as she could. The figure
remained motionless. It was a strange kind of shock that she experienced
when she saw the face, disgusting from its inanity. The absurdity next
struck her; and with the absurdity flashed into her mind the conviction
that this was not the doing of a vampire; for of all creatures under the
moon, he could not be expected to be a humorist. A wild hope sprang up in
her mind that Karl was not dead.
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