"We wish to see Herr Frank. He is at home, we hear."
"Papa is not here just at this moment, but he will be back directly," replied Gretchen, to whom this late and unexpected visit came as a great relief, offering her the means of escape from her difficulty. Without it, she must either have committed the rudeness of leaving the Assessor alone during her father's absence, or have been compelled to stay with him to keep him company. Instead, therefore, of showing the new-comers into the agent's study, as was customary, she led them straightway into the sitting-room.
"Two gentlemen who wish to speak to papa," said she, by way of explanation, to the astonished Assessor, who looked up and rose as the strangers entered and bowed to him, while the girl, kindly offering to let her father know, went out again for that purpose.
She had just sent off one of the maids, and was about to return to the room, when, to her amazement, the Assessor appeared in the dimly lighted hall, and inquired hastily whether Herr Frank had been sent for. Gretchen answered in the affirmative.
The Assessor came up to her, and said in a whisper--
"Fräulein Margaret, those are the men."
"What men?" asked she, in surprise.
"The two suspicious characters. I have them. They are in the trap."
"But they are not Poles, not a bit of it," objected the girl.
"They are the two individuals who passed me in the post-chaise," he replied, obstinately. "The same who, later on, behaved in a way calculated to arouse suspicion. At all events, I shall take my measures. I shall interrogate, and if necessary arrest them."