Then I was seized by dread of what was to come.
"Oh, if you had not sent your sister away!" I thought, and looking around for help I spied Lothar in the doorway, apparently about to take leave. I rushed over to him and caught his hands.
"Come now, you aren't leaving us, are you? After all this trouble we must have something hot together--what do you say?"
He turned red as blood, but I led him over to Iolanthe, who had just been relieved of her hat and cloak.
"You must help me persuade him to stay, Iolanthe. His exertions for us have surely earned him a cup of tea."
"I ask you," she said, without even raising her eyes.
He made a stiff bow, and pulled at his moustache.
I led them through the lighted halls to the dining-room.
She looked neither to the right nor the left. All the splendour brought into being for her sake shone unnoticed. Two or three times she reeled on my arm, and at each crisis I looked anxiously about to see if the boy was with us.
Praised be the Lord! He was still there!