Within was a lively conversation, and twice a shout of joy was heard and Marie, exultant, cried, “Oh, Trude! dear Trude! all goes well, I fear nothing now. God has sent me the savior which I implored!”
Leberecht stood, bent over, applying his ear to the keyhole, listening to every word.
Oh, Trude! if you could only have seen the traitor, glued to the door, with open eyes and mouth! Could you have seen the eavesdropper rubbing his hands together, grinning, and listening in breathless suspense!
Why cannot you surprise him, Trude, and fulfil your threat to deluge him and chase him away from your child’s door? They forgot the necessity of prudence, and the possibility of being overheard. At last it occurred to the old servant, and she tore open the door, but no one was there—it was deserted and still.
“God be thanked, no one has listened,” whispered Trude. “I will go down and tell them that I hope, if we can stay alone all day, you will be calmer and more reasonable.”
“Do it, Trude; I do not dare to see any one for fear my face will betray me, and my mother has very sharp eyes. Return soon.”
She opened the door, and saw not the eavesdropper and spy, who had but just time to conceal himself, and stand maliciously grinning at the retreating figure of the faithful servant.
He slipped lightly from his hiding-place down to his sleeping-room, in a niche under the stairs. For a long time he reflected, upon his bedside—his watery blue eyes staring at nothing. “This must be well considered,” he mumbled. “There is, at last, a capital to be won. Which shall I do first, to grasp a good deal? Shall I wait, or go at once to Herr Ebenstreit? Very naturally they would both deny it, and say that I had made up the whole story to gain money. I had better let the affair go on: they can take a short drive, and when they are about an hour absent, I will sell my secret at a higher price. Now I will pretend to be quite harmless, and after supper let the bomb burst!”