Not only the ladies, but their servants were
looking at him.
Flight was impossible. He walked by them. The ladies curtseyed,
the servants bowed bare-headed. Rudolf touched his hat and bowed
slightly in return. He walked straight on towards my house; they
were watching him, and he knew it. Most heartily did he curse the
untimely hours to which folks keep up their dancing, but he
thought that a visit to my house would afford as plausible an
excuse for his presence as any other. So he went on, surveyed by
the wondering ladies, and by the servants who, smothering smiles,
asked one another what brought his Majesty abroad in such a
plight (for Rudolf's clothes were soaked and his boots muddy), at
such an hour--and that in Strelsau, when all the world thought he
was at Zenda.
Rudolf reached my house. Knowing that he was watched he had
abandoned all intention of giving the signal agreed on between my
wife and himself and of making his way in through the window.
Such a sight would indeed have given the excellent Baroness von
Helsing matter for gossip! It was better to let every servant in
my house see his open entrance. But, alas, virtue itself
sometimes leads to ruin. My dearest Helga, sleepless and watchful
in the interest of her mistress, was even now behind the shutter,
listening with all her ears and peering through the chinks.
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