mfortable 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.

"Now go and fetch the key," said Count Feri, as soon as the door had
closed on Leopold.

The hint of the gold watch had stirred Klara's pulses. A _tete-a-tete_
with my lord was, moreover, greatly to her liking. He could be very
amusing when he chose, and was always generous; and Klara's life was
often dull and colourless. A pleasant evening spent in his company would
compensate her in a measure for her disappointment at not being asked to
Elsa's ball, and there was the gold watch to look forward to, above all.

Taking an opportunity when her father was absorbed in his game of tarok,
she went into the next ro