re would
be a bowl of flowers, and a pot of delicious Kaffee, and a plate of
German Kaffeekuchen, and through the leafy doorway the scent of the
wonderful garden would come stealing.

I thought of the cheap little flat, with the ugly sideboard, and the bit
of weedy yard in the rear, and the alley beyond that, and the red and
green wall paper in the parlor. The next moment, to my horror, Alma
Pflugel had dropped to her knees before the table in the damp little
arbor, her face in her hands, her spare shoulders shaking.

"Ich kann's nicht thun!" she moaned. "Ich kann nicht! Ach, kleine
Schwester, wo bist du denn! Nachts und Morgens bete ich, aber doch
kommst du nicht."

A great dry sob shook her. Her hand went to her breast, to her throat,
to her lips, with an odd, stifled gesture.

"Do that again!" I cried, and shook Alma Pflugel sharply by the
shoulder. "Do that again!"

Her startled blue eyes looked into mine. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"That--that gesture. I've seen it--somewhere--that trick of pressing the
hand to the breast, to the throat, to the lips--Oh!"

Suddenly I knew. I lifted the drooping head and rumpled its neat braids,
and laughed down into the startled face.

"She's here!" I shouted, and started a dance of triumph on the shaky
floor of the old arbor. "I know her. From the moment I saw you the
resemblance haunted me." And then as Alma Pflugel continued to stare,
while the stunned bewilderment grew in her eyes, "Why, I have one-fourth
interest in your own nephew this very minute. And his name is Bennie!"

Whereupon Alma Pflugel fainted quietly away in the chilly little grape
arbor, with her head on my shoulder.

I called myself savage names as I chafed her hands and did all the
foolish, futile things that distracted humans think of at such times,
wondering, meanwhile, if I had been quite mad to discern a resemblance
between this simple, clear-eyed gentle German woman, and the battered,
ragged, swaying figure that had stood at the judge's bench.

Suddenly Alma Pflugel opened her eyes. Recognition dawned in them
slowly. Then, with a jerk, she sat upright, her trembling hands clinging
to me.

"Where is she? Take me to her. Ach, you are sure--sure?"

"Lordy, I hope so! Come, you must let me help you into the house. And
where is the nearest telephone? Never mind; I'll find one."

When I had succeeded in finding the nearest drug store I spent a wild
ten minutes telephoning the surprised litt