For twenty minutes I stood and made small talk with Miss Prendergast.
They were the longest twenty minutes I have ever spent. I was dead tired
in any case, but my desperate position kept my thoughts so busy that,
for all my endeavours to be polite, I fear my conversation was extremely
distraught.

"You poor boy!" suddenly said Miss Mary Prendergast, totally ignoring a
profound remark I was making regarding Mr. Wilson's policy, "don't you
go on talking to me! Sit down on that chair and go to sleep! You look
just beat!"

I sat down and nodded in the arm-chair.

Suddenly I was awake. Monica stood before me. She drew from under her
cape a livery cap and uniform.

"Put these things on," she said, "and listen carefully. When you leave
here, turn to the right and take the little staircase you will find on
the right. Go down to the bottom, go through the glass doors, and across
the room you will find there, to a door in a corner which leads to the
ballroom entrance of the hotel. I will give you my ermine wrap to carry.
I shall be waiting there. You will help me on with my cloak and escort
me to the car. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly."

"Now, pay attention once more, for I shall not be able to speak to you
again. I shall have to give you your directions for finding the way to
the Bendler-Strasse."