I did not pursue those questions. After waiting a little till the foreigner had slowly passed out of sight, I rang the gate bell. It was then twenty minutes past eleven—late enough to make it quite easy for the Count to get rid of me by the excuse that he was in bed.
The only way of providing against this contingency was to send in my name without asking any preliminary questions, and to let him know, at the same time, that I had a serious motive for wishing to see him at that late hour. Accordingly, while I was waiting, I took out my card and wrote under my name “On important business.” The maidservant answered the door while I was writing the last word in pencil, and asked me distrustfully what I “pleased to want.”
“Be so good as to take that to your master,” I replied, giving her the card.
I saw, by the girl’s hesitation of manner, that if I had asked for the Count in the first instance she would only have followed her instructions by telling me he was not at home. She was staggered by the confidence with which I gave her the card. After staring at me, in great perturbation, she went back into the house with my message, closing the door, and leaving me to wait in the garden.
In a minute or so she reappeared. “Her master’s compliments, and would I be so obliging as to say what my business was?”
“Take my compliments back,” I replied, “and say that the business cannot be mentioned to anyone but your master.” She left me again, again returned, and this time asked me to walk in.
I followed her at once. In another moment I was inside the Count’s house.