“No ... no....”
She laughed aloud. Cordt took her hands and led her to a chair. She let him do as he would and continued to look up in his face.
Then she suddenly thrust him from her.
She smiled and shook her head at her folly. She rose and walked round the room. She said she was quite well, told him to go away ... just to go away.
She stared at the door, which closed after him, as though she had seen him for the last time. Then she turned round and looked into a mirror which showed her whole figure.
Slowly she walked up to the mirror, sat down before it, with her head in her hands, and stared into her own face.
The clock struck one and two from the church-steeples and she did not hear. Then some one shouted down in the square. She rose, took a candle and left the room.
She went through the long passages and up the stairs, softly and carefully, as if she were a thief. She listened at Cordt’s door and at Finn’s. Then she stood outside the old room. She listened ... there was no sound. She opened the door ajar and saw that it was dark.
She went in quickly and walked straight up to the secret recess in the wall. She opened it and took the yellow document in her trembling hands.