she is to Arthur Elmreich?"

"The man who shot himself? Oh, she is no relation at all. At most a
distant cousin."

"_Na, na_," was Karlchen's reply; a reply whose English equivalent would
be a profoundly sceptical wink.

His mother looked at him, waiting for more.

"What do you really think----?" she began, and then stopped.

He stood before the glass readjusting his moustache into the regulation
truculent upward twist. "Think?" he said. "You know Arthur's sister
Lolli was engaged at the Wintergarten this winter. She was not much of a
success. Too old. But she was down on the bills as Baroness Elmreich,
and people went to see her because of that, and because of her brother."

"Oh--terrible," murmured Frau von Treumann.

"Well, I know her; and I shall ask her next time I see her if she has a
sister."

"But this one has no relations living at all," said his mother,
horrified at the bare suggestion that Lolli was the sister of a person
with whom she ate her dinner every day.

"_Na, na_," said Karlchen.

"But my dear Karlchen, it is so unlikely--the baroness is the veriest
pattern of primness. She has such very strict views about all such
things--quite absurdly strict. She even had doubts, she told me, when
first she came here, as to whether Anna were a fit companion for her."

Karlchen stopped twisting his moustache, and stared at his mother. Then
he threw back his head and shrieked with laughter. He laughed so much
that for some moments he could not speak. His mother's face, as she
watched him without a smile, made him laugh still more. "_Liebste
Mama_," he said at last, wiping his eyes, "it may of course not be true.
It is just possible that it is not. But I feel sure it _is_ true, for
this Elmreich and the little Lolli are as alike as two peas. Anna not a
fit companion for Lolli's sister! _Ach Gott, ach Gott!_" And he shrieked
again.

"If it is true," said Frau von Treumann, drawing herself up to her full
height, "it is my duty to tell Anna. I cannot stay under the same roof
with such a woman. She must go."

"Take care," said her son, illumined by an unaccustomed ray of sapience,
"take care, _Mutti_. It is not certain that Anna would send her away."

"What! if she knew about this--this Lolli, as you call her?"

Karlchen shook his head. "It is better not to begin with ultimatums," he
said sagely. "If you say you cannot stay under the same roof with the
Elmreich, and she does not after that go, why then