id, "but I'm blessed ..."

"Wait there!" cried this remarkable girl, and ran out of the room.

For twenty minutes I stood and made small talk with Miss Prendergast.
They were the longest twenty minutes I have ever spent. I was dead tired
in any case, but my desperate position kept my thoughts so busy that,
for all my endeavours to be polite, I fear my conversation was extremely
distraught.

"You poor boy!" suddenly said Miss Mary Prendergast, totally ignoring a
profound remark I was making regarding Mr. Wilson's policy, "don't you
go on talking to me! Sit down on that chair and go to sleep! You look
just beat!"

I sat down and nodded in the arm-chair.

Suddenly I was awake. Monica stood before me. She drew from under her
cape a livery cap and uniform.

"Put these things on," she said, "and listen carefully. When you leave
here, turn to the right and take the little staircase you will find on
the right. Go down to the bottom, go through the glass doors, and across
the room you will find there, to a door in a corner which leads to the
ballroom entrance of the hotel. I will give you my ermine wrap to carry.
I shall be waiting there. You will help me on with my cloak and escort
me to the car. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly."

"Now, pay attention once more, for I shall not be able to speak to you
again. I shall have to give you your directions for finding the way to
the Bendler-Strasse."

She did so and added:

"Drive carefully, whatever you do. If we had a smash and the police
intervened, it might be most awkward for you."

"But your chauffeur," I said, "what will he do?"

"Oh, Carter," she answered carelessly, "he's tickled to death ... he's
American, you see ... he drove me out into the Tiergarten just now and
took off his livery, then drove me back here, hopped off and went home."

"But can you trust him?" I asked anxiously.

"Like myself," she said. "Besides, Carter's been to Belgium ... he drove
Count Rachwitz, my husband, while he was on duty there. And Carter
hasn't forgotten what he saw in Belgium!"

She gave me the key of the garage and further instructions how to put
the car up. Carter would give me a bed at the garage and would bring me
round to the house early in the morning as if I were applying for the
job of male attendant for Gerry.

"I will go down first," Monica said, "so as not to keep you waiting. My,
but they're rattled downstairs--all the crowd at Olga von Radolin's
dance have got hol