the stairs, and tore open the door to the janitor's apartment. The Janitress was sitting on a bed in the semi-darkness. A child was looking up from the basement to the street; another was blowing a meaningless tune on a comb. "Is Fräulein Heil not at home?" asked the Baron. The woman stood up. "No, Herr Baron, Fräulein Heil has left town . . ."
"What!" the Baron shouted. "But of course," he added immediately, "she left at about three o'clock, didn't she?"
"No, Herr Baron, the Fräulein left about eight this morning."
"And where to? . . . Or that is, did she go directly to—" he said haphazardly, "did she go directly to Dresden?"
"No, Herr Baron; she left no address. She said that she would write where she is."
"So, yes, yes, quite so. Naturally . . . many thanks." He turned away and came up on the street again. He could not help looking back at the house. How differently the evening sun was reflected in the windows now. The heavy melancholy mugginess of a summer evening lay over the city. Kläre was gone! . . . Why? . . . She had fled from him? . . . What was the meaning of that? . . . He thought at first of going to the opera. But he remembered that the season was closing the day after to-morrow, and that for the last couple of days Kläre had nothing to do there.
So he went to 76 Mariahilferstrasse where the Ringeisers lived. An old cook came to the door, and examined this tony visitor with some distrust. He had the cook call Frau Ringeiser. "Is Fräulein Fanny at home?" he asked with an excitement that he could not master.
"How's that?" Frau Ringeiser asked sharply.
The Baron introduced himself.
"Oh, quite so," said Frau Ringeiser. "Would the Herr Baron mind stepping in?"
He stepped into the hall and asked again, "Is Fräulein Fanny not at home?"
"If the Herr Baron would just step a little farther." Leisenbohg had to follow her, and found himself in a low half-dark room with blue-velvet furniture, and windows hung with rep curtains of the same colour. "No," Frau Ringeiser said; "our Fanny is not at home. Fräulein has taken her along on her vacation."
