It was old Gretchen's job to attend to the front door, and when she answered my ring, she told me no one was at home, and that Rosa had left a parcel for me. A glance showed that the paper wrapper was torn and that the packet had been put up clumsily as if in a great hurry by unskilled fingers. Gretchen had evidently been curious about the contents.
I opened it in her presence, therefore, as there could be no harm in her having a second look at it, and found a quaint card-case inside, with some cards printed, "Johann Lassen," and a line saying she thought I should understand and find them useful. It was rather neat of her, and clearly was intended as an assurance that she meant to keep our secret.
She came in soon afterwards and I thanked her for it. She was pleased that she had succeeded in making her intention clear; but she wasn't so pleased when she heard that old Gretchen had had a peep at the card-case. Nor was she at all overjoyed at the story of the afternoon's doings in the Untergasse. She looked mighty grave about it, indeed.
"I'm not going to say I'm pleased about it, Johann," she declared. We had agreed that it would be better practice for us to use the Christian names even when alone. "It wants thinking over."
"Your reason?"
"Von Gratzen. You saw him this morning, didn't you?"
I nodded and gave her a very brief report of what had occurred and that he had been quite friendly.
She shook her head. "You'll have to be awfully careful with him. He knows, as well as I do, that my cousin is an arrant coward, and that no man in all Berlin would be less likely to do what you did this afternoon; or could have done it, in fact. The Baron's a man I could never understand. No one can. He does the most extraordinary things; he's horribly keen and shrewd; quixotic at one time and abominably harsh at another; although from his manner you'd think he wouldn't hurt a fly."
"Well, let's hope he'll show his quixotic side over this, for it's too late to alter things;" and we were still discussing it when Feldmann arrived, and she asked him eagerly for news.
"There's a hitch, I'm sorry to say. About Hans," he reported with a worried look. "His permit to travel has been refused. They won't release him from his training even for twenty-four hours. I did all I could, I assure you, Rosa."