And he smiled too--he is a very handsome fellow--and desired me most pressingly to open the door as he had something of the greatest importance to say to me.

I said he could talk very well through the gap at the top; that Pyramus and Thisbe had even kissed through a chink in a wall.

But he would not see the joke; he got graver and more earnest, and insisted, saying that our fate, his and mine, hung on that hour, and that not a soul must overhear what he had to say.

The top of the door was too high to whisper through, so there was nothing for it but to ask Papias for the key; however, he did not know where he had put it.

I afterwards thought of asking him what he had done with his flute and he fetched it then at once .-- In short, the key was nowhere to be found.