One might have thought she was applauding the prima-donna; but no, she was applauding herself.
Benjamin Vajdar returned home, left the police officer quartered in his antechamber, and, with his servant's aid, began packing his trunks.
After that task was accomplished he waited impatiently for the close of the opera and Rozina's return.

When his watch told him that he must have waited long enough, he passed noiselessly through the secret passage and opened the mysterious door in the tall clock at its farther end.

The marchioness was not there.

One hour, two hours, he waited in her boudoir, and still she failed to appear.
"Very well; so be it," said Vajdar to himself.

"You thought to outwit me; we shall see which will outwit the other." With that he opened the little writing-desk and took out the morocco-bound pocketbook which he seemed to know so well where to find.
A single glance at its contents satisfied him that the papers he desired were still there.