spying, then?"

"Spying--I--Kasteliz--Maurus Johann--an insult!"

"Insult!" sneered Swithin; "d'you mean to tell me you weren't in the
street just now?"

Kasteliz answered with a hiss, "If you do not leave the city I will make
you, with my sword--do you understand?"

"And if you do not leave my room I will throw you out of the window!"

For some minutes Kasteliz spoke in pure Hungarian while Swithin waited,
with a forced smile and a fixed look in his eye. He did not understand
Hungarian.

"If you are still in the city to-morrow evening," said Kasteliz at last
in English, "I will spit you in the street."

Swithin turned to the window and watched his visitor's retiring back
with a queer mixture of amusement, stubbornness, and anxiety. 'Well,' he
thought, 'I suppose he'll run me through!' The thought was unpleasant;
and it kept recurring, but it only served to harden his determination.
His head was busy with plans for seeing Rozsi; his blood on fire with
the kisses she had given him.

IX

Swithin was long in deciding to go forth next day. He had made up his
mind not to go to Rozsi till five o'clock. 'Mustn't make myself too
cheap,' he thought. It was a little past that hour when he at last
sallied out, and with a beating heart walked towards Boleskey's. He
looked up at the window, more than half expecting to see Rozsi there;
but she was not, and he noticed with faint surprise that the window was
not open; the plants, too, outside, looked singularly arid. He knocked.
No one came. He beat a fierce tattoo. At last the door was opened by
a man with a reddish beard, and one of those sardonic faces only to be
seen on shoemakers of Teutonic origin.

"What do you want, making all this noise?" he asked in German.

Swithin pointed up the stairs. The man grinned, and shook his head.

"I want to go up," said Swithin.

The cobbler shrugged his shoulders, and Swithin rushed upstairs. The
rooms were empty. The furniture remained, but all signs of life were
gone. One of his own bouquets, faded, stood in a glass; the ashes of
a fire were barely cold; little scraps of paper strewed the hearth;
already the room smelt musty. He went into the bedrooms, and with a
feeling of stupefaction stood staring at the girls' beds, side by side
against the wall. A bit of ribbon caught his eye; he picked it up and
put it in his pocket--it was a piece of evidence that she had once
existed. By the mirror some pins were dropped about; a