ase. Eh, Haase?"

"Zu Befehl, Excellenz," deferred Herr Haase.

The iron bell-pull squealed in its dry guides; somewhere within the
recesses of the house a sleeping bell woke and jangled. Silence
followed. The three of them waited upon the road in the slant of the
sunshine, aware of the odor of hot dust, trees, and water. Herr Haase
stood, in the contented torpor of service and obedience, holding the
heavy suit-case to one side of the gate; to the other, the Baron and
Von Wetten stood together. Von Wetten, with something of rigidity
even in his ease and insouciance, stared idly at the windows through
which, as through stagnant eyes, the silent house seemed to be
inspecting them; the Baron, with his hands joined behind him, was
gazing through the gate at the unresponsive yellow door. His pink,
strong face had fallen vague and mild; he seemed to dream in the
sunlight upon the threshold of his enterprise. All of him that was
formidable and potent was withdrawn from the surface, sucked in, and
concentrated in the inner centers of his mind and spirit.

There sounded within the door the noise of footsteps; a bolt clashed,
and there came out to the gate a young woman with a key in her hand.
The Baron lifted his head and looked at her, and she stopped, as
though brought up short by the impact of his gaze. She was a small
creature, not more than twenty-two or twenty-three years of age, as
fresh and pretty as apple-blossom. But it was more than shyness that
narrowed her German-blue eyes as she stood behind the bars, looking
at the three men.

Von Wetten, tall, comely, stepped forward.

"Good afternoon, gnadige Frau. We have an appointment with your
husband for this hour. Let me present Herr Steinlach Herr von Haase."

The two bowed at her; she inspected each in turn, still with that
narrow-eyed reserve.

"Yes," she said then, in a small tinkle of a voice. "My husband is
expecting you."

She unlocked the gate; the key resisted her, and she had to take both
hands to it, flushing with the effort of wrenching it over. They
followed her into the house, along an echoing corridor, to a front
room whose windows framed a dazzling great panorama of wide water,
steep blue mountain, and shining snow-slopes. Herr Haase, coming last
with the suitcase, saw around the Baron's large shoulders how she
flitted across and called into the balcony: "Egon, the Herren are
here!" Then, without glancing at them again, she passed them and
disapp