"No, but perhaps his neighbors would know."
"I will inquire. Can you tell me what was his last address?"
"I can give you his sister's. No doubt she will know where he lived last."
"That will do. All right. I will start up a line of investigation at once. Perhaps among us all, we may get hold of a clue. And how goes the German, Nan?"
"It is a fearsome language," said Nan solemnly. "I wish you could have heard me trying to make Frau Pfeffer understand me, though I think I struggled harder, if anything, to understand her. Such a dialect! I don't see how they make it out themselves, and I don't see, either, how they master the German pure and—no, I can't say simple, for it is exactly the opposite."
"I admit it is pretty hard, and if I hadn't tackled it early, I would be in a regular fuddle now. But I took my grasp young, and have managed to hold on, as you will do."
"I don't know. I like French, or any of the Latin languages better."
"Yet there is a sort of rugged dignity about German which is very attractive. Its literature is very rich."
"I suppose so, and I may find its attractions later, but not when I am stumbling into pitfalls caused by declensions and constructions."