V.
I have already had an opportunity of telling you that I had been brought up chiefly on detective stories. I therefore thought that there would be but little difficulty in solving the case of Miss Doblana. In a nutshell this case was as follows: She was sure that nobody had called, while her father seemed certain to the contrary. How did he know it? He did not say. The mysterious visitor had left no card, otherwise either Mitzi or Fanny would have found it when they arrived, which was some time before Mr. Doblana's return. Besides, a card generally bears a name, and the horn-player's question to his daughter had been: "Who called upon you during my absence?" which proved that he only knew, or thought he knew, that somebody had called, but did not know who the somebody was.
We rang for Fanny. Had Mr. Doblana asked her anything in connexion with the affair?
"Yes," she said, "on the Monday morning he asked me who had called during his absence, and I said: 'Nobody.'"
Thereupon Miss Doblana wanted to know, why Fanny had not said the truth, namely, that she did not know.
"He was very cross," answered the girl, "and I thought that perhaps somebody did call, and that Fräulein did not wish Mr. Doblana to know."
"You have a good opinion of me, Fanny. However, what did he do when you said that nobody had called?"
"He did not do anything. He swore. He said that I was in the plot, and that we were both deceiving him."