"All right, Klara, I'll do my best. We can but pray that I shall find my lord at home, in which case I can be back in twenty minutes. I'll pick up a friend or even two when I return, as then we can all walk into the tap-room together. It won't be so conspicuous as if I came in alone. What is the time now?" he asked.
She went to the partition door, opened it and peeped into her father's room.
"Just ten minutes to nine," she said; "father will have gone by the time you come back."
"That'll be as well, won't it?" he concluded, as he finally turned to go. "If you are not in the tap-room when I come back, what shall I do with the key?"
She pointed to a small brass tray which stood on the table in among the litter of bottles, glasses, mugs and tobacco-jars.
"Just on there," she said, "then if I come into the room later, I can see it there at a glance; and oh! what a relief it will be!"
The colour had come back to her cheeks. Indeed, she felt marvellously cheerful now and reassured. She knew that Andor would fulfil his share of the bargain, and the heavy cloud of trouble and of terror would be permanently lifted from her within the next half-hour.
In her usual, light-hearted, frivolous way she blew a kiss to Andor. But the young man, without looking again on her, had already opened the door, and the next moment he had gone out into the dark night on his errand of friendship.