it out.

When she saw that there was not a spark left in the stove, she went into
her own little room and prepared to go out. Her excitement caused her to
forget her rheumatism entirely. One more look around her little kitchen,
then she locked it up and set out for the centre of the city.

She went to the office of the importing house where her tenant, Leopold
Winkler, was employed as bookkeeper. The clerk at the door noticed the
woman's excitement and asked her kindly what the trouble was.

"I'd like to speak to Mr. Winkler," she said eagerly.

"Mr. Winkler hasn't come in yet," answered the young man. "Is anything
the matter? You look so white! Winkler will probably show up soon, he's
never very punctual. But it's after eleven o'clock now and he's never
been as late as this before."

"I 'don't believe he'll ever come again," said the old woman, sinking
down on a bench beside the 'door.

"Why, what do you mean?" asked the clerk. "Why shouldn't he come again?"

"Is the head of the firm here?" asked Mrs. Klingmayer, wiping her
forehead with her handkerchief. The clerk nodded and hurried away to
tell his employer about the woman with the white face who came to ask
for a man who, as she expressed it, "would never come there again."

"I don't think she's quite right in the head," he volunteered. The head
of the firm told him to bring the woman into the inner office.

"Who are you, my good woman?" he asked kindly, softened by the evident
agitation of this poorly though neatly dressed woman.

"I am Mr. Winkler's landlady," she answered.

"Ah! and he wants you to tell me that he's sick? I'm afraid I can't
believe all that this gentleman says. I hope he's not asking your help
to lie to me. Are you sure that his illness is anything else but a case
of being up late?"

"I don't think that he'll ever be sick again--I didn't come with any
message from him, sir; please read this, sir." And she handed him the
newspaper, showing him the notice. While the gentleman was reading she
added: "Mr. Winkler didn't come home last night either."

Winkler's employer read the few lines, then laid the paper aside with a
very serious face. "When did you see him last?" he asked of the woman.

"Day before yesterday in the morning. He went away about half-past eight
as he usually does," she replied. And then she added a question of her
own: "Was he here day before yesterday?"

The merchant nodded and pressed an electric bell. Then he ros