She sprang forward and pushed him away, taking his place at the handle. “Keep under the curtain,” she directed, pumping away vigorously. “Out of sight. A man is looking through the window. I just saw his head from where I stood. It was Udo Rollmar. If he sees you—ah, he must not see you. Hist! there he is again.”
Peeping through a slight parting in the curtains that screened the organ-blower’s seat, Ludovic could see a foxy face looking in through one of the leaded panes. He remembered what Countess Minna had told him of the Chancellor’s son, that he was in love with the Princess.
“I am not afraid of that fellow,” he said. “Why should I hide from him?”
Minna threw up her hand in distress. “Oh, you idiot! You will ruin us all. Can you not think of the Princess? Now will you hide? Quickly! He is surely coming in. Oh, we are ruined! We are lost!”
The face had disappeared from the window. The situation was critical. At any moment Captain Rollmar might show himself over the screen. Minna was beside herself with terror, while the music still floated out under the fingers of the unconscious player.
“Oh, this is awful!” she gasped in despair, looking helplessly round the trap in which they seemed caught. “Ah!” She pointed to the narrow door which gave admittance to the interior of the organ. “In there, for Heaven’s sake!” she besought him. But he hesitated and hung back.
“It is unnecessary,” he objected quietly.
Even in her distress she could not help marvelling at his coolness.
“You are mad, or, at least, horribly selfish,” she exclaimed indignantly. “If you are tired of your life because you cannot have what you want, I promise you I am not. Man, to save the Princess’s honour and my life, will you not go in there till the danger is past?”
She spoke with rapid vehemence, trembling with fear and excitement.