She wanted to be alone with this hideous fear that was clutching at her heart. For it was not to Franz that she could tell the thoughts that came to her lips now as she sank down, wringing her hands, before a picture of the Madonna: “Oh Holy Virgin, Mother of our Lord, plead for me! let me be with my dear mistress when the terrible time comes and they take her husband away from her, or, if preferring death to disgrace, he ends his life by his own hand!”
CHAPTER XI. IN THE POLICE COURT
Commissioner Von Riedau sat at his desk late that evening, finishing up some important papers. The quiet of an undisturbed night watch had settled down on the busy police station. An occasional low murmur of whispering voices floated up from the guardroom below, but otherwise the stillness was broken only by the scratching of the commissioner’s pen and the rustle of the paper as he turned the leaves. It was a silence so complete that a light step on the stair outside and the gentle turning of the doorknob was heard distinctly and the commissioner looked up with almost a start to see who was coming to his room so late. Joseph Muller stood in the open door, awaiting his chief’s official recognition.
“Oh! it’s you, Muller. So late? Come in. Anything new?” asked the commissioner. “Have you succeeded in drawing a confession from that stubborn tramp yet? You’ve been interviewing him, I take it?”
“Yes, I had a long talk with Johann Knoll to-day.”
“Well, that ought to help matters along. Has he confessed? What could you get out of him?”
“Nothing, or almost nothing more than he told us here in the station, sir.
“The man’s incredibly stubborn,” said the commissioner. “If he could only be made to understand that a free confession would benefit him more than any one else! Well, don’t look so down-cast about it, Muller. This thing is going to take longer than we thought at first for such a simple affair. But it’s only a question of time until the man comes to his senses. You’ll get him to talk soon. You always do. And even if you should fail here, this matter is not so very important, when we think of all the other things you have done.” Muller, standing front of the desk, shook his head sadly.
“But I haven’t failed here, sir. More’s the pity, I had almost said.”