Effi spent the whole day out in the park, because she needed to take the air.  Old Dr. Wiesike of Friesack approved of it, but in his instructions gave her too much liberty to do what she liked, and during the cold days in May she took a severe cold.  She became feverish, coughed a great deal, and the doctor, who had been calling every third day, now came daily.  He was put to it to know what to do, for the sleeping powders and cough medicines Effi asked for could not be given, because of the fever.

“Doctor,” said old von Briest, “what is going to come of this?  You have known her since she was a little thing, in fact you were here at her birth.  I don’t like all these symptoms:  her noticeable falling away, the red spots, and the gleam of her eyes when she suddenly turns to me with a pleading look.  What do you think it will amount to?  Must she die?”

Wiesike shook his head gravely.  “I will not say that, von Briest, but I don’t like the way her fever keeps up.  However, we shall bring it down soon, for she must go to Switzerland or Mentone for pure air and agreeable surroundings that will make her forget the past.”

“Lethe, Lethe.”

“Yes, Lethe,” smiled Wiesike.  “It’s a pity that while the ancient Swedes, the Greeks, were leaving us the name they did not leave us also the spring itself.”

“Or at least the formula for it.  Waters are imitated now, you know.  My, Wiesike, what a business we could build up here if we could only start such a sanatorium!  Friesack the spring of forgetfulness!  Well, let us try the Riviera for the present.  Mentone is the Riviera, is it not?  To be sure, the price of grain is low just now, but what must be must be.  I shall talk with my wife about it.”

That he did, and his wife consented immediately, influenced in part by her own ardent desire to see the south, particularly since she had felt like one retired from the world.  But Effi would not listen to it.  “How good you are to me!  And I am selfish enough to accept the sacrifice, if I thought it would do any good.  But I am certain it would only harm me.”

“You try to make yourself think that, Effi.”

“No.  I have become so irritable that everything annoys me.  Not here at home, for you humor me and clear everything out of my way.  But when traveling that is impossible, the disagreeable element cannot be eliminated so easily.  It begins with the conductor and ends with the waiter.  Even when I merely think of their self-satisfied countenances my temperature runs right up.  No, no, keep me here.  I don’t care to leave Hohen-Cremmen any more; my place is here.  The heliotrope around the sundial is dearer to me than Mentone.”

After this conversation the plan was dropped and in spite of the great benefit Wiesike had expected from the Riviera he said:  “We must respect these wishes, for they are not mere whims.  Such patients have a very fine sense and know with remarkable certainty what is good for them and what not.  What Mrs. Effi has said about the conductor and the waiter is really quite correct, and there is no air with healing power enough to counterbalance hotel annoyances, if one is at all affected by them.  So let us keep her here.  If that is not the best thing, it is certainly not the worst.”