"But I do not wish to hear it, William."
"But you need not mind my telling you, for if I listened at the door a little bit, that was not your doing, and it was not my doing that the door was ajar, and I plainly heard our lady say that she would never forgive it you----"
"Well," I muttered.
"And when she said it, she looked----"
"So you could see too?"
"O, the door was pretty wide open," William answered, shrugging his shoulders, "and I made a rattling with the plates on purpose, but the Fräulein was in such a rage----"
And William here made a face, apparently intended to represent the one he had seen through the crack of the door, but so absurdly incredible that I burst out laughing.
"Very good," he said; "I wanted to give you the hint; for when she is angry----but you can laugh."
And William sighed deeply and looked at me in a supplicating manner. "Well?" I said.
"And I wanted to beg you," he went on, "that if--ahem! you know what I mean--you would be so good as to help me and my Louise too, for we have been waiting now six years, and it is easy for you, Herr Engineer. Is it not, now, Herr Engineer?"