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She acquired it by marriage to Salvatore Marchesi, an Italian baritone. Before that she was Fräulein Mathilde Graumann, a concert singer of Frankfort-on-the-Main; and sometimes I wonder whether, if she had remained Fräulein Mathilde Graumann, she ever would have become the famous teacher she is. But Marchesi she is, and famous; and I do not doubt justly so.
The directness of the question seemed to shake the girl out of her enforced calm. A slow flush mounted into her pale cheeks and then died away, again leaving them whiter than before. "I do not know oh, I do not know what to believe." "But you do not think Mr. Graumann capable of such a crime, do you?" "Not of the robbery, of course not; that would be absurd!
"You see that he has sent to the Capital for assistance on the case." Muller felt this little untruth to be justified for the sake of the honour of the police force. "Yes, I'm surprised at that," said Graumann in his former tone of weariness. "What do you think you will be able to do about it?" "I must ask questions here and there before I can form a plan of campaign," replied Muller.
I cannot think any more about it. I know only that I am here in danger of being sentenced for the crime that I never committed that is enough to keep any man's mind busy." He leaned back with an intense fatigue in every line of his face and figure. Muller rose from his seat. "I am afraid I have tired you, Mr. Graumann," he said, "but it was necessary that I should know all that you had to tell me.
"All this speaks for the possibility that there may have been a quarrel ending in the fatal shot. But what I want to know from you is this do you think it possible, that, this having happened, Albert Graumann would not have been the first to confess his unpremeditated crime? Is not this the most likely thing for a man of his character to do? Would he so stubbornly deny it, if it had happened?"
"It is as I thought," replied Muller. "John Siders took his own life, but made every arrangement to have suspicion fall upon Graumann." "But why? oh, why?" "It was a terrible revenge. But perhaps perhaps it was just retribution. Graumaun would not understand that Siders could have been suspected of, and imprisoned for, a theft he had not committed.
Doctor von Riedau's own face glowed in a slowly mounting flush, and his eyes drooped in a moment of conscious embarrassment at some recollection, the sting of which was evidently made worse by Muller's presence. But Commissioner von Riedau had brains enough to acknowledge his mistakes and to learn from them. He looked across the desk at Miss Graumann.
Graumann," Muller replied gently, "but to help you establish your innocence, if it be possible." A wave of colour flooded the prisoner's cheek. He gasped, pressed his hand to his heart, and dropped down on his cot. "Pardon me," he said finally, hesitating like a man who is fighting for breath. "My heart is weak; any excitement upsets me.
It takes all my control to keep my decision unwavering while I sit here and tell you how much your love, your great tenderness, your sweet trust in me, meant to me. Let me talk rather of Albert Graumann.
I dare not think what this excitement may do for him." Miss Graumann broke down again and sobbed aloud. Muller laid his hands soothingly on the little old fingers that gripped the arm of the chair. "Did your nephew send you here to ask for help?" he inquired very gently. "Oh, no" The old lady looked up at him through her tears. "No, he would not have done that.
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