Murmuring an apology in case his visitor should prove to be a gentleman, he shut the door and went in search of his mistress.

His description of the untimely caller at once roused my wife's quick wit; she had heard from me how Rudolf had ridden once from Strelsau to the hunting-lodge with muffled face; a very tall man with his face wrapped in a scarf and his hat over his eyes, who came with a private message, suggested to her at least a possibility of Mr.Rassendyll's arrival.
Helga will never admit that she is clever, yet I find she discovers from me what she wants to know, and I suspect hides successfully the small matters of which she in her wifely discretion deems I had best remain ignorant.

Being able thus to manage me, she was equal to coping with the butler.

She laid aside her embroidery most composedly.
"Ah, yes," she said, "I know the gentleman.

Surely you haven't left him out in the rain ?" She was anxious lest Rudolf's features should have been exposed too long to the light of the hall-lamps.
The butler stammered an apology, explaining his fears for our goods and the impossibility of distinguishing social rank on a dark night.