"Lieutenant von Heydeck of the infantry. Why should our Fräulein look at the infantry when she can have cavalrymen by the dozens?"
"That's just why she doesn't care for them. 'Tis sure to be Herr von Heydeck whom she's vexed about. I don't know him. Is he handsome?"
"I don't know; he looks like all the other infantry fellows. I never trouble my head about him. What does it all concern us?"
"It is just what does concern us!" Nanette replied, peevishly. "I'll find out all my fine lady's tricks and teach her who I am! I tell you, Wilhelm, we can do what we please with our masters and mistresses if we only can find out their secrets; and to do that we must keep our eyes and ears open and help each other, for what one doesn't see the other may. So you must tell me everything that you learn, in or out of the house, Wilhelm, and I'll put this and that together."
Nanette's proposition did not appear to find much favour with Wilhelm.
"I'll tell you what, Nanette," he said. "I'd like nothing better than to please you, but you'd better leave me out of this. I've no fancy for spying on my mistress. I do my work and no more bother."
"But if I were to beg you, dear Wilhelm?" Nanette asked, tenderly laying her hand upon his shoulder and looking sweetly into his face,--indeed, she was extremely pretty. "If I were to promise you a kiss," she continued, "would you refuse to do what I ask?"
The bribe was so seductive that honest Wilhelm's principles were hardly strong enough to withstand the maid's request, coming as it did from lips so rosy and inviting. Her cause was half won when he asked, with some hesitation, "But what do you want me to do?"
"Nothing wrong, Wilhelm dear," the girl hastily answered; "nothing wrong. I wouldn't ask it of you, but really we poor servants must stand by each other if we wouldn't be trodden down into the very dirt. Is it wrong in us to use the eyes and ears that God gave us? We are human beings, and ought to know all that is going on around us. Keep your eyes open when you drive out with our Fräulein, and never forget who meets or speaks to her. And when you are waiting at table you can pick up many a bit of information,--you must tell me what they talk about. That's no wrong: you tell no one's secrets. If you'll only do this, Wilhelm dear, I'll like you so much, and give you a kiss, or perhaps two, for every piece of news you bring me. You shall have one now if you'll promise to do as I say."
The temptation was too great. Wilhelm could not resist. He gave a prompt "yes," and for his reward took not one but a dozen kisses. Nanette seeming nothing loth, he might have gone on receiving prepayment for his services had he not been startled by a loud exclamation behind him, followed by the words, in most distinct Saxon German,--