"There may be news," he said. "Who knows? And afterwards the
patron will go out, and it would not be wise for you to remain alone
in the house."
"Why not?"
Barlasch turned and looked at her thoughtfully over his shoulder.
"In some of the big houses down in the Niederstadt there are forty
and fifty soldiers quartered--diseased, wounded, without discipline.
There are others coming. I have told them we have fever in the
house. It is the only way. We may keep them out; for the
Frauengasse is in the centre of the town, and the soldiers are not
needed in this quarter. But you--you cannot lie as I can. You
laugh--ah! A woman tells more lies; but a man tells them better.
Push the bolts, when I am gone."
After his dinner, Sebastian went out, as Barlasch had predicted. He
said nothing to Desiree of Charles or of the future. There was
nothing to be said, perhaps. He did not ask why Mathilde was
absent. In the stillness of the house, he could probably hear her
moving in her rooms upstairs.
He had not been long gone when Mathilde came down, dressed to go
out. She came into the kitchen where Desiree was doing the work of
the absent Lisa, who had reluctantly gone to her home on the Baltic
coast. Mathilde stood by the kitchen table and ate some bread.
"The Grafin has arranged to quit Dantzig to-morrow," she said. "I
am going to ask her to take me with her."
Desiree nodded and made no comment.
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