“His door is locked. I have knocked many times.”
“I suppose he is out,” said the Princess.
“Yes, he may be out,” Schinkel remarked, judicially.
He and the Princess stood a moment looking at each other, and then she asked, “Have you any doubt of it?”
“Oh, es kann sein. Only the woman of the house told me five minutes ago that he came in.”
“Well, then, he probably went out again,” the Princess remarked.
“Yes, but she didn’t hear him.”
The Princess reflected, and was conscious that she was flushing. She knew what Schinkel knew about their young friend’s actual situation, and she wished to be very clear with him, and to induce him to be the same with her. She was rather baffled, however, by the sense that he was cautious, and justly cautious. He was polite and inscrutable, quite like some of the high personages—ambassadors and cabinet-ministers—whom she used to meet in the great world. “Has the woman been here, in the house, ever since?” she asked in a moment.
“No, she went out for ten minutes, half an hour ago.”
“Surely, then, he may have gone out again in that time!” the Princess exclaimed.