Tomaso rose and looked from the doorway anxiously.
"It is close on sundown," he said, "it is time Francisco came."
"It is intolerably wearisome," yawned Conrad. "I would I had gone with our friend—'twould have been more enlivening than this."
Tomaso's face ill concealed his scorn.
"'Tis a matter of life and death, Count Conrad; even now the soldiers may at any time return."
With a pleasant smile Von Schulembourg leaped from the table.
"Pardon me, if I vex thee with my seeming carelessness," he said, with the charm of manner that could always win him friends. "I owe too large a debt to all of you, to really be so heedless as I seem; but methinks there is no single thing——"
"Save keep ourselves in readiness, my lord," said Tomaso. "Francisco charged us to be so disposed that we could leap into the saddle without a breath's delay."
"I remember," said Count Conrad, lapsing again into an idle mood. "Methinks our Veronese deliverer issues commands as if well used to it."