"I know," said Carl.
He was a personage of few words, and those two words told me quite plainly that he believed me and had confidence in me.
"It's not you," he said, after a pause. "She said you didn't want to do it, but you'd have to do it; for you were a bad man once, and you'd have to do it over again," said Carl. "What you'd done before, for someone had said so. I don't know who they were." He had got the tale so mixed up that I could scarcely follow his meaning. "When will you give me the dog?" he finished, irrelevantly enough.
"I'll give you him—I'll give you him to-morrow," I said, "if father will let me. But he's sure to, if I ask him."
Scarcely had I finished speaking than the door opened and Gretel appeared.
She stood for a moment when she saw us together, as though the sight had turned her into stone.
Then she came towards us.
"How did you get here?" said she to me.
"Through that door," I answered her.
She took me by the hand and led me away. As she did so, something closed round my neck, and something touched me on the cheek.