Herr Kreutzer, he said earnestly: "My dear sir, if my mother has said
anything harsh or disagreeable to you--"

Kreutzer was astonished, but had no complaint to make. His only wish
was, now, to have his opportunity to bid his girl farewell and then to
go to prison, where, as quickly as was possible, he might serve out
whatever sentence was imposed on him. After his release, if the
sentence was not of such duration that it spanned the few short years
of life remaining to him, he would once again work for his Anna and
endeavor to atone to her for the misfortunes which his own
incompetence, he argued, had oppressed her with.

"Your mother," he assured the youth, so that the situation might not
be prolonged, "has been polite. Your mother has been most polite."

The young man, with an expression of relief upon his face, turned
then, to his mother. "Tell me, mother, what has brought you here," he
said.

She did not hesitate. The situation did not in the least depress her.
Rather was she somewhat proud of her own part in it. "It's really
painful, my dear boy," said she, "but I flatter myself that I've been
quite a Sherlock Holmes. I suppose you haven't even discovered, yet,
that the diamond ring is gone--is stolen."

He looked at her in sheer amazement. It was clear enough that he did
not, immediately, know what she was talking of. "The ring gone?
Stolen, mother?"

Suddenly he burst into a laugh--so hearty, so spontaneous, so wholly