Well, mother, what cheer?
And you, my pretty, how goes it with you ?" He carelessly brushed the girl's cheek with the glove that he had drawn off.

"Faith, though, I beg your pardon." he added a moment later, "the glove's not clean enough for that," and he looked at his buff glove, which was stained with patches of dull rusty brown.
"It's all as when you left, Count Rupert," said Mother Holf, "except that that rascal Bauer went out last night--" "That's right enough.

But hasn't he returned ?" "No, not yet." "Hum.

No signs of--anybody else ?" His look defined the vague question.
The old woman shook her head.

The girl turned away to hide a smile.
"Anybody else" meant the king, so she suspected.