"But you, Cousin? How have you done? I fancy the Herr Major smells a change in the wind," and he gestured toward the lorries and the hurrying servants.
"You will move back?"
"Or forward," declared Paul tartly. "A strategic retreat, dear Cousin, is often the forerunner of a safe advance."
"But whichever happens," the nurse said earnestly, "I wish to know what has become of—of the flying-man?"
"Ah! Is it so?"
"I have come to see him, Paul. You must help me!" she whispered. "Is he still here?"
"The Herr Lieutenant August Gessler is here and very comfortably entertained," Paul said. "Merely, for some reason best known to the Herr Doktor, he is requested not to leave his room—in the rear on this floor."
"Oh, Paul! I must see him," she repeated.
"Why?" asked the young man, his eyes averted from her face. "Why are you so deeply interested in this flying-man?" he added.
"If you are my friend, Cousin Paul, you will not ask," she told him softly.