“It’s good, it’s good,” Schinkel responded through his smoke.
“Then I’ll send away my cab.” She returned to the vehicle and paid the driver, who said with expression “Thank you, my lady” and drove off.
“You gave him too much,” observed Schinkel when she came back.
“Oh he looked like a nice man. I’m sure he deserved it.”
“It’s very expensive,” Schinkel went on sociably.
“Yes, and I’ve no money—but it’s done. Was there no one else in the house while the woman was away?” the Princess resumed.
“No, the people are out; she only has single men. I asked her that. She has a daughter, but the daughter has gone to see her cousin. The mother went only a hundred yards, round the corner there, to buy a pennyworth of milk. She locked this door and put the key in her pocket; she stayed at the grocer’s, where she got the milk, to have a little conversation with a friend she met there. You know ladies always stop like that—nicht wahr? It was half an hour later that I came. She told me he was at home, and I went up to his room. I got no sound, as I have told you. I came down and spoke to her again, and she told me what I say.”
“Then you determined to wait, as I’ve done,” said the Princess.
“Oh yes, I want to see him.”
“So do I, very much.” She said nothing more for a minute, but then added: “I think we want to see him for the same reason.”