Lilly played the drowsy pussy, and purred and yawned She began to feel so secure that once she actually fell asleep right in the middle of a laugh.
Oh, if only there had been no Miss von Schwertfeger!
Not that Miss von Schwertfeger had noticed anything. The horrors of such a possibility were inconceivable. But her restless, hasty comings and goings, the almost anxious greed with which she pried about, gave sufficient cause for concern.
She looked very pale and worn, while the fleshy region about her mouth and her sharp, scenting nose glowed a still deeper red.
You might suppose she tippled in secret. But such thing would be bound to leak out, and at table scarce a drop passed her lips.
"Let her do whatever she wants to," thought Lilly, "if only she doesn't come spying on me as she did on Katie."
And sometimes it occurred to Lilly that she herself was no better than the poor maid Katie, whom they had chased from the castle.
It was shortly before midnight one evening late in November.
Miss von Schwertfeger had said good-night, and _he_ was sitting at Lilly's pillow wet and frozen through. He had been standing in the chilly drizzle a long time before the signal agreed upon--two rattles of the shutter bolt--had summoned him to her room.
Now, everything was serene. The entire house was asleep; the watchman had made his rounds, and the ladder, which Von Prell drew up after him for greater security, reposed peacefully on the balcony.
The blue-shaded chandelier bathed the warm, perfumed room in the light of a summer evening. Drops of rain splashed softly against the shutters, and the November wind whined like a beggar.
Lilly lay comfortably under her blue silk quilt, holding his hand and dreaming up into his face, which, even in moments of self-abandon, retained its expression of abashed roguery. She saw the freckled bridge of his nose, the white-lashed, blinking eyes, the peaked chin covered with stubble and almost hidden by the green collar of his working jacket. He could no longer smarten himself for her sake. His housemates might notice the change.
They did not say much to each other. If only he was with her, he who belonged to her in life and death, who like herself had been cast astray in this strange world.