“And to wait until evening to know it, Rosa! I shall die with impatience. Could we not agree about a signal?”
“I shall do better than that.”
“What will you do?”
“If it opens at night, I shall come and tell you myself. If it is day, I shall pass your door, and slip you a note either under the door, or through the grating, during the time between my father’s first and second inspection.”
“Yes, Rosa, let it be so. One word of yours, announcing this news to me, will be a double happiness.”
“There, ten o’clock strikes,” said Rosa, “I must now leave you.”
“Yes, yes,” said Cornelius, “go, Rosa, go!”
Rosa withdrew, almost melancholy, for Cornelius had all but sent her away.
It is true that he did so in order that she might watch over his black tulip.