The good woman answered: 'I don't quite know, madam, whether I have not let them already.'-- Don't you think that rather a strange reply ?" "It seems to require some explanation, certainly.

What did the landlady say ?" "The landlady's explanation explained nothing," Fritz interposed.

"She appears to have spoken of a mysterious stranger, who had once before inquired if Madame Fontaine was likely to leave the lodgings--and who came yesterday to inquire again.

You tell him the rest of it, Minna." Before she could speak, I had already recognized the suspicious-looking personage whom Mr.Engelman and I had some time since encountered on the door-step.

I inquired what the man had said when he heard that the lodgings were to let.
"There is the suspicious part of it," cried Fritz.