"Oh!" he said expressively, and nothing more. Then, with a sinister curl of the lip, he turned to Lilly. "Can I speak a few words to madame alone?" he asked.
"If Herr Redlich will excuse me," she said; and in her confusion and from old habit, she opened the door of the bedroom, as if that were quite the correct place in which to speak a few words with an ordinary "kind" acquaintance.
Richard, equally accustomed to this way, followed her, heedless of the intimacy he exposed by so doing.
"Look here," he said, when he had shut the door, "I've been fool enough to be jealous of your so-called soul's affinity. But after what I've seen just now, I swear you may entertain your friends as much as you like--morning, noon, and night for all I care. And I'll keep a stock of old suits on hand for them. Now, go back to your dinner, you little donkey!"
Then he went out by the other door. She heard him laughing to himself after he had gone.
She was so deeply ashamed that she scarcely knew how to return to the friend of her youth, he who was so strict in his morals that at the bare mention of her divorce he had displayed pained disgust.
Then it dawned on her that she was standing in her bedroom. Now everything had been shown up--everything! However little acquainted he might be with the ways of the world, he could not help perceiving her relations with the intruder who had so suddenly appeared in her flat and disappeared with equal suddenness.
For a long time she hesitated what to do, with her hand on the handle of the door. She listened in fear for his departing step, the angry rasping of his throat--even his silence filled her with alarm. Then, trembling and ready to confess everything in tears of penitence, she ventured back to the dining-room.
What did she see? Only the gentleman still seated at the table, rubbing out the stains made by the wet napkin on his waistcoat. The blue goggles lay beside his plate, and he blinked at her with friendly and unconcerned eyes.
"Is he gone already?" he asked ingenuously. Evidently he had not even heard the door slam.