It was all so sudden, so unexpected, so terrible.
It appears that he kept the papers in this very house--in that room through there.

It was his study--" "My dear countess, silence!" interrupted Steinmetz at this moment, breaking into the conversation in his masterful way and enabling Etta to get away.

Catrina, at the other end of the room, was listening, hard-eyed, breathless.

It was the sight of Catrina's face that made Steinmetz go forward.

He had not been looking at Catrina, but at Etta, who was perfect in her composure and steady self-control.
"Do you want to enter the boot trade also ?" asked Steinmetz cheerfully, in a lowered voice.
"Heaven forbid!" cried the countess.
"Then let us talk of safer things." The short twilight was already brooding over the land.