Part 23 (1/2)
”I thought there was,” he remarked dryly. ”Where is it?”
”In the next room. . . . It hangs on a nail by father's bedside.”
”Go and get it, then,” he said more impatiently.
”Not now,” she urged. ”Leopold is looking straight at you and me.”
He shrugged his aristocratic shoulders.
”You are not afraid of that monkey?” he said with a laugh.
”Well, no! not exactly afraid. But he is so insanely jealous; one never knows what kind of mischief he'll get into. He told me just now that whenever father is away from home he takes his stand outside this house from nightfall till morning--watching!”
”A modern Argus--eh?”
”A modern lunatic!” she retorted.
”Well!” resumed the young man lightly, ”lunatic or not, he won't be able to keep an eye on you to-night, even though your father will be away.”
”How do you mean?”
”Hirsch is off to Fiume in half an hour.”
”To Fiume?”
”Yes. You know he has a brother coming home from America.”
”I know that.”
”His s.h.i.+p is due in at Fiume the day after to-morrow. Leopold must start by the same train as your father to-night, in order to catch the express for Fiume at Budapesth to-morrow.”
”Did he tell you all that?”
”I have known all along that he meant to meet his brother at Fiume, and yesterday he said something about it again. So you see, my pretty one, that we can have a comfortable little supper this evening without fear of interruption. We'll have it at ten o'clock, when the supper-party is going on at the barn, eh? We shan't be interrupted then. So give me that duplicate key, will you, and I can slip in quietly through the back door without raising a bit of gossip or scandal. Hurry up now! I shall have to be going.”
”I can't now,” she protested. ”Leopold hasn't taken his eyes off me all this time.”
”Oh! if that is all that is troubling you, my dear,” said the young man coolly, ”I can easily settle our friend Leopold. Hirsch!” he called loudly.
”My lord?” queried the other, with the quick obsequiousness habitual to the down-trodden race.
”My horse is kicking up such a row outside. I wish you'd just go and see if the boy is looking after him properly.”
Of course it was impossible to do anything but obey. My lord had commanded; in the ordinary way the poor Jew shopkeeper would have felt honoured to have been selected for individual recognition. Nor did he do more now than throw one of those swift looks of his--so full of hatred and of menace--upon Klara and the young man; but the latter, having given his orders, no longer condescended to take notice of the Jew and had once more engaged the girl in animated conversation.
Had Klara thought of looking up when Leopold finally obeyed my lord's commands and went to look after the horse, she could not have failed to realize the danger which lurked in the young man's pale eyes then. His face, always pale and olive-tinted, was now the colour of ashes, grey and livid and blotched with purple, his lips looked white and quivering, and his eyebrows--of a reddish tinge--met above his nose in a deep, dark scowl.
But my lord had thrown out a casual hint about a gold watch, and Klara had no further thought for her jealous admirer.