"How came you during the last hour to find out all this?"
"Because, when I was undressing to go to bed, I made my _femme de chambre_ talk to me, and learned from her that she had a sister in the service of Porporina. Immediately I began to question her, and picked out, as it were, with a needle's point, the fact that my woman had left her sister's house just as the king visited Porporina."
"My woman had seen the king distinctly as I see you. He even spoke to her, taking her for her sister, who was in another room, attending to her sick mistress, if the illness of the latter was not pretence. The king inquired after Porporina's health with the greatest anxiety, and stamped his feet with much chagrin when he learned that she continued to weep. He did not ask to see her, lest he should annoy her, and having left a very precious _flacon_ for her, and said if she remained unwell, he would come at eleven o'clock on the next night."
"Well, I hope all this may be so, yet I scarcely dare believe my ears. Does your woman know the king's face?"
"Every one knows a monarch who is always on horseback. Besides, a page had preceded the king five minutes, to see if there was any one at her house. During that time, the king, cloaked and wrapped up, waited, as he is wont to do, at the end of the street."
"Then, Von Kleist, the secret of this mystery and solicitude is love, or I am mistaken. And have you come, in spite of the cold, to tell me this! My dear friend, how good you are."
"You may add, in spite of ghosts. Do you know that for several days there has been a panic in the palace? My _chasseur_ trembled like an idiot as he accompanied me through the passages."
"What is the matter? Is the white lady come again?"
"My dear Von Kleist, we are not playing the trick now. Our phantoms are far away. God grant they may return!"
"I thought at first that perhaps the king wished to play the ghost, for now he has a good cause to desire all curious servants out of the passages. What astonished me very much, however, was the fact that the ghost does not appear near his rooms, nor on the road to Porporina's. The spirits hover around your highness; and as I have nothing to do with the matter, I will say I am not a little afraid."