"I can arrange them some time later," she thought, dimly conscious that she would never take the trouble.
Adele came with the box. She seemed to have been a remarkably long time getting it. Her eyes kept wandering guiltily to the clock, and her answers were absent-minded. Then she threw back the lid, and Lilly threw the score into the bottom of the box. Its yawning depths seemed to cry out for further booty. There lay the dresses spread out on the bed. Her row of shoes stood by the washstand. Hats, blouses, veils, lace wraps, silk petticoats--all were waiting as much as to say, "Take us too!"
For a moment she closed her eyes with a moan, remembering the one and only sacrifice he had asked of her. But it must be done--both their futures depended on it.
"Frau Laue will hide them for me, and afterwards Frau Laue can keep them," she thought.
Then, with a rapid resolve, she made a dash at the clothes, and gathered up blindly anything and everything she could lay hands on. She seized even the gold-coroneted ivory brushes, the three-winged hand-mirror, the bromide, the recipe for the summer storage of her furs, and a dozen other little indispensable articles of the toilette.
And jewels were not forgotten! "He may want money later," she thought.
Meanwhile Adele had been sent out for a four-wheeler, and again it was ages before she came back. The porter helped to carry down the trunk, and Adele held the hat-boxes in her free hand. One last caress of the bullfinch's grey-green wings, a kiss on the small monkey's velvety snout, and the door closed behind her for ever.
"Will not the gnädige Frau leave an address?" Adele inquired. How sly she looked!
"Later on I will write to you, dear Adele, and I hope you may come and live with me again."
"Dear Adele" did not respond, but glanced down the street expectantly.