I went to work with superhuman swiftness.

My cheeks may have been livid, my very lips bloodless; but my hands were steady and my wits under full control.
Concealment--concealment for myself and her--was the thing that now imported; and no sooner was the thought conceived than the means were devised.

Slender means were they, yet Heaven knows I was in no case to be exacting, and since they were the best the place afforded I must trust to them without demurring, and pray God that Messer Ramiro might lack the wit to search.

And with that fresh hope it came to me that I must find a way so to dispose as to make him believe that to search would be a futile waste of energy.
The odds against me lay in the little time at my disposal.

Yet a little time there was.