When the last guests had gone and all servants, too, had gone to their rest, she called the waitress, with some jesting reproach, into her room.
A long whispered conversation followed. At its end the woman declared that the matter was child's play to her.
And did not suspect that by this game she was saving her life.
Chapter VII.
In hesitant incredulity Antonie awaited the things that were to come.
On the first day a staggering thing happened. The red-headed woman, scolding at the top of her voice, threw down a beer-glass at her master's feet, upon which he immediately gave her notice.
Toni's newly-awakened hope sank. The woman had boasted. And what was worse than all: if the final deed could be accomplished, her compact with the waitress would damn her. The woman would of course use this weapon ruthlessly. The affair had never stood so badly.
But that evening she breathed again. For Weigand declared that the waitress seemed to have her good qualities too and her heart-felt prayers had persuaded him to keep her.
For several days nothing of significance took place except that
Weigand, whenever he mentioned the waitress, peered curiously aside.
And this fact Toni interpreted in a favorable light.
Almost a week passed. Then, one day, the waitress approached Toni at an unwonted hour.