nearer, and sinking her, voice one hiss lower. "You
shouldn't say I said it, but Frau Nirlanger likes she
should look young for her husband. He is much younger as
she is--aber much. Anyhow ten years. Frau Nirlanger
does not tell me this, but from other people I have found
out." Frau Knapf shook her head mysteriously a great
many times. "But maybe you ain't got such an interest in
Frau Nirlanger, yes?"

"Interest! I'm eaten up with curiosity. You shan't
leave this room alive until you've told me!"

Frau Knapf shook with silent mirth. "Now you make
jokings, ain't? Well, I tell you. In Vienna, Frau
Nirlanger was a widow, from a family aber hoch edel--very
high born. From the court her family is, and friends
from the Emperor, und alles. Sure! Frau Nirlanger, she
is different from the rest. Books she likes, und
meetings, und all such komisch things. And what you
think!"

"I don't know," I gasped, hanging on her words, "what
DO I think?"

"She meets this here Konrad Nirlanger, and
falls with him in love. Und her family is mad! But
schrecklich mad! Forty years old she is, and from a
noble family, and Konrad Nirlanger is only a student from
a university, and he comes from the Volk. Sehr gebildet
he is, but not high born. So-o-o-o-o, she runs with him