After assuring herself of this, the princess tried on her new shoes, and found that Citizen Scalcagnato was no less skilful as a shoemaker than eminent as a politician and a party-leader.
The house was now still and deserted, although the sounds of riotous excess were faintly audible in the distance.

The servants had evidently fled at the same time that Blanka and the marchioness left the palace.
Looking out of her rear window, the princess noticed that her garden gate was open; it must have been left swinging by her domestics in their flight.

She was hastening down-stairs to close it, when a man's form appeared before her in the gathering gloom, and she cried out in sudden terror.
"Do not be alarmed, Princess." The words came in a firm, manly voice that thrilled the hearer; she recognised the tones.

Manasseh Adorjan stood before her.

"I could not gain admittance by the front door," he explained, "so I went around to the garden gate." "And how is it," asked Blanka, "that you have come to me at the very moment that I was seeking you ?" "I wished, first, to bid you farewell.