"Has Hugo Gottfried returned?" said the Duke, without looking up.
"Hugo Gottfried is here!" I replied, stepping unannounced into the room.
He looked up without smiling, a keen inquiring glance glittering from between eyelids so close together that only the faintest line of the pupil showed black under the lashes.
"Well?" he questioned.
"I will do the thing you have asked," answered I.
And said no more.
The Duke instantly became restless, and getting up, he began to pace about the floor like a caged beast.
"You have seen her?" he inquired, stopping in front of me, wide-nostrilled, like a dog that points the game.
"I have seen her," I replied, as simply.
"Well?" he queried again, with a keen, eager note of anxiety in his voice.