She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly fell from her hand.

Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the lamp in his hand.
"'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door.

It was a quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the centre, on which several German books were scattered.

Colonel Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the door.

'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and vanished into the darkness.
"I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises on science, the others being volumes of poetry.