"Well, you can see who she is, I should think," replied his mother equally irritably. "She is just Fräulein Kuhräuber, and nothing more." "Anna talks to her more than to anyone," he said; she was already "Anna" to him, _tout court_. "Yes. It is disgusting." "It is very disgusting. It is not right that Treumanns should be forced to associate on equal terms with such a person." "It is scandalous. But you will change all that." Karlchen twisted up the ends of his moustache and looked down his nose. He often looked down his nose because of his eyelashes. He began to hum a tune, and felt happy again. Axel Lohm was right when he doubted whether there had ever been a permanently crushed Treumann. "She has a strange assortment of _alte Schachteln_ here," he said, after a pause during which his thoughts were rosy. "That Elmreich, now. What relation does she say she is to Arthur Elmreich?" "The man who shot himself? Oh, she is no relation at all. At most a distant cousin." "_Na, na_," was Karlchen's reply; a reply whose English equivalent would be a profoundly sceptical wink. His mother looked at him, waiting for more. "What do you really think----?" she began, and then stopped. He stood before the glass readjusting his moustache into the regulation truculent upward twist. "Think?" he said. "You know Arthur's sister Lolli was engaged at the Wintergarten this winter. She was not much of a success. Too old. But she was down on the bills as Baroness Elmreich, and people went to see her because of that, and because of her brother." "Oh--terrible," murmured Frau von Treumann. "Well, I know her; and I shall ask her next time I see her if she has a sister." "But this one has no relations living at all," said his mother, horrified at the bare suggestion that Lolli was the sister of a person with whom she ate her dinner every day. "_Na, na_," said Karlchen. "But my dear Karlchen, it is so unlikely--the baroness is the veriest pattern of primness. She has such very strict views about all such things--quite absurdly strict. She even had doubts, she told me, when first she came here, as to whether Anna were a fit companion for her." Karlchen stopped twisting his moustache, and stared at his mother. Then he threw back his head and shrieked with laughter. He laughed so much that for some moments he could not speak. His mother's face, as she watched him without a smile, made him laugh still more. "_Liebste Mama_," he said at last, wiping his eyes, "it may of course not be true. It is just possible that it is not. But I feel sure it _is_ true, for this Elmreich and the little Lolli are as alike as two peas. Anna not a fit companion for Lolli's sister! _Ach Gott, ach Gott!_" And he shrieked again. "If it is true," said Frau von Treumann, drawing herself up to her full height, "it is my duty to tell Anna. I cannot stay under the same roof with such a woman. She must go."