pilfering her umbrella, which was silvertopped. All the same,
there was something indecent about his behaviour. It showed how little
he had, at heart, cared for any of them. Only a person who thoroughly
despised others, would treat them in this way, playing with them up to
the last minute, as one plays with dolls or fools.

Avery Hill was laid out in a small room adjoining the policestation. It
was evening before the business of identification was over. Various
members of the American colony had to give evidence, and the services
of the consul were called into play, for there were countless
difficulties, formalities and ceremonies attached to this death by
one's own hand in a foreign country. Before all the technical details
were concluded, there were those who thought--and openly said so--that
an intending suicide might cast a merciful thought on the survivors.
Only Dove made no complaint. He had been one of the first to learn what
had happened, and, in the days that followed, he ran to and fro, from
one BUREAU to another, receiving signatures, and witnessing them,
bearing the whole brunt of surly Saxon officialdom on his own shoulders.

Twenty-four hours later, it had been arranged that the body should be
buried on the JOHANNISFRIEDHOF, and the consul was advised by cablegram
to lay out the money for the funeral. Under the eyes of a
police-officer and a young clerk from the consul's office, Madeleine,
assisted by Miss Jensen, went through the dead girl's belongings, and
packed them together.

Miss Jensen kept up, in a low voice, a running commentary on the
falsity of men and the foolishness of women. But, at times, her natural
kindness of heart asserted itself, to the confusion of her theories.

"Poor thing, poor young thing!" she murmured, gazing at a pair of
well-patched boots which she held in her hand. "If only she had come to
us!--and let us help her!"

"Help her?" echoed Madeleine in a testy way; she was one of those who
thought that the dead girl might have shown more consideration for her
friends, standing, as they did, immediately before their PRUFUNGEN.
"Could one help her ever having set eyes on that attractive
scoundrel?-- And besides, it's easy enough thinking afterwards, one
might have been able to help, to do this and that. It's a mistake.
People don't want help; and they don't give you a thank-you for
offering it. All they ask is to be let alone, to muddle and bungle
their lives as they like."