Then for a while silence again, only broken by the breathing of two anxious beings, and of someone else's breathing on the other side of the door. "Who is there?" called out Walter. Next came a tap, low, broken, unassertive, as if made by fingers that trembled and failed. "Who the devil is there?" he shouted again. "Anna von Schwertfeger." He jumped up and opened the door. There she stood, ashen-grey, and only red about the mouth and eyelids. "The colonel has just driven to Baron von Platow's, and will be back in three hours. He has bidden me tell you, Lilly, that when he returns he does not wish to find you in his house or on his estate." "And what has he bidden you tell me?" sneered Walter von Prell. Fraeulein von Schwertfeger, without heeding him, took Lilly's hand. "Come," she said, "there's not much time. We must begin packing at once." "Yes, but where am I to go?" she asked helplessly as she slowly rose to her feet. * * * * * Directly they were outside she saw the carriage that was to take her to the station drive up. PART II CHAPTER I She was Lilly Czepanek once more. The divorce suit had been quickly settled. There had been no attempt at defence, and after the colonel's evidence the judges decreed that Lilly had forfeited the right for ever to bear her husband's honourable name. "There is nothing to rescue from this wreck," wrote Doktor Pieper, "except the jewels which I hope, acting on my advice about looking in at shop-windows, you have industriously accumulated. The pearls which your ex-husband--prompted, I may confess now, by me--put round your neck on the wedding day I will get permission for you to retain, and they alone will keep your head above water for many a long day." In consequence of this letter, Lilly, who after her flight had found the pearls in one of her trunks among her gala dresses and rare lace, took them to a jeweller's to be carefully packed, and returned them then and there, addressed to Fraeulein von Schwertfeger. The less valuable ornaments she kept, feeling that they might justly be considered her personal property. She had disposed of a good many to start with, and what remained would scarcely keep her for another year. After that she would be destitute. But she did not think of the future. It was hidden from her behind the veil of tears that she had shed. Regret for what she had lost, acute consciousness of her grievous position, occupied her mind to the exclusion of almost everything else. Oh, how she cried and cried--she understood now what crying meant. She learnt to gulp down her tears as one gulps down seawater; she sucked them back with her lower lip, she shook them off her cheeks as if they were raindrops; but always they gushed forth afresh. After the pain that caused them was deadened they still welled up, from habit. Whether she was asleep or awake, her tears came.