ocial distinctions, I might have
betrayed my satisfaction at this announcement in a way that would have
made this homely German woman start. As it was I sat stock-still, and
even made her think I had not heard her. Venturing to rouse _me_ a bit,
she spoke again after a minute's silence.

"She might have been lonely, you know, ma'am; and the ticking of a clock
is such company."

"Yes," I answered with more than my accustomed vivacity, for she jumped
as if I had struck her. "You have hit the nail on the head, Mrs.
Boppert, and are a much smarter woman than I thought. But when did she
wind the clock?"

"At five o'clock, ma'am; just before I left the house."

"O, and did she know you were going?"

"I think so, ma'am, for I called up, just before I put on my bonnet,
that it was five o'clock and that I was going."

"O, you did. And did she answer back?"

"Yes, ma'am. I heard her step in the hall and then her voice. She asked
if I was sure it was five, and I told her yes, because I had set the
kitchen clock at twelve. She didn't say any more, but just after that I
heard the parlor clock begin to strike."

O, thought I, what cannot be got out of the most stupid and unwilling
witness by patience and a judicious use of questions. To know that this
clock was started after five o'clock, that is, after the hour at which
the hands pointed when it fell, and that it was set correctly in
starting, and so would give indisputable testimony of the hour when the
shelves fell, were points of the greatest importance. I was so pleased I
gave the woman another smile.

Instantly she cried:

"But you won't say anything about it, will you, ma'am? They might make
me pay for all the things that were broke."

My smile this time was not one of encouragement simply. But it might
have been anything for all effect it had on her. The intricacies of the
affair had disturbed her poor brain again, and all her powers of mind
were given up to lament.

"O," she bemoaned, "I wish I had never seen her! My head wouldn't ache
so with the muddle of it. Why, ma'am, her husband said he came to the
house at midnight with his wife! How could he when she was inside of it
all the time. But then perhaps he said that, just as you did, to save me
blame. But why should a gentleman like him do that?"

"It isn't worth while for you to bother your head about it," I
expostulated. "It is enough that _my_ head aches over it."

I don't suppose she understood me or