"Please dress as quickly as you can. Dress for travel."
"If you have a travelling dress put it on. You can pack your luggage while I am talking to you. But dress as quickly as you can and then return and let me in."
She said after a moment's silence: "I certainly shall not do any of those things until I know more about you and about your errand here."
"I have a message for you from General Baron Kurt von Reiter."
"That is possible," she said quietly. "What is the message?"
"I was to say to you that the question which you were to decide on the first of November must be decided sooner."
"I must have clearer proof that your message is genuine. I am sorry to distrust you but I have been annoyed lately."
"Very well," he said. "Open the door a little more. Don't be afraid. I merely wish you to look at a ring which I wear. I want you to draw it from my finger and look at what is engraved inside."
There was another silence. Then the door crack slowly widened.