'Did you see the gentleman?' she asked.
'What gentleman?'
'The gentleman who is in prison!'
'What prison?' asked the woman with dogged stupidity.
'You're a perfect idiot!' cried Madame Bonanni, and she slammed the door of the box in the woman's face, and bolted it inside.
She sat down and read the note a fourth time. There was no doubt as to its being really from Logotheti. She laughed to herself.
'More ingenious than ever!' she said, half aloud.
A timid knock at the door of the box. She rose with evident annoyance, and opened again, to meet the respectable old box-opener, a grey-haired woman of fifty-five.
'Please, Madame, is the woman to go away? She seems to be waiting for something.'
'Tell her to go to all the devils!' answered Madame Bonanni, furious. 'No—don't!' she cried. 'Where is she? Come here, you!' she called, seeing the woman at a little distance. 'Do you know what you are doing? You are trying to help Schirmer, the murderer, to escape. If you are not careful you will be in prison yourself before morning! That is the answer! Now go, and take care that you are not caught!'