repeated Minos with gusto. The conductor of the orchestra seized his baton and was going to play, “Hail to the Emperor.” Many stood up in readiness to escape in case of danger.
In the meantime the prisoner was screaming as if he were possessed; but the two Italian police that Napoleon had brought with him could not understand a word.
The emperor himself had forgotten that he had called for orange water and was now engrossed in a military map.
“Qu’ a-t-il?” he seemed to be asking the lady next to him.
Minos had begun again and was once more repeating his assurance that “feelings of pleasure thrill——”
Walter noted that the grown-up members of the Holsma party did not pay the slightest attention to the play.
“If she doesn’t come soon, I’m going,” Mevrouw Holsma repeated.
“Perhaps she’s sitting further back in the emperor’s box, where we can’t see her.”
“I’ve heard that in Paris she never stays fifteen minutes in the same place. Maybe we shall find her somewhere else,” remarked another.
“I am not going to wait but five minutes longer. My little Erich is worth more to me than a thousand cousins——”