Hanno’s Doll by Evelyn Piper Page A

good for Puppchen to have something to do. Then Puppchen suggested doing the mail for him.
    It had started on the day after New Year’s when Miss Metal came into his office, where Puppchen was trying to forget her worry in answering letters for him Anni had been with Puppchen in the office that day. Miss Metal had come in with still more mail, and when Puppchen saw how much there was—it was too much. Puppchen had thrown up her hands and asked Miss Metal if she could get him a new secretary.
    It had started with Miss Metal. The request for a new secretary had started it.
    Miss Metal had promptly thrown a fit, Anni said. “A fit.” She would never get another secretary for Mr. Dietrich. Never! They could cut her up into little pieces but she wouldn’t get another girl for him to kill.
    â€œA girl to kill? I killed? I killed? ”
    Yes, Miss Metal said he had killed, he had killed. If he hadn’t ruined Miss Mildred, she wouldn’t have needed to run away to marry Philip Scott, and then she would be alive now.
    â€œI ruined? Me?”
    â€œYes, you, Hanno.”
    Did anyone think that Miss Metal for one moment believed that it had been Philip Scott who had ruined Miss Mildred? Not in a million years! Miss Metal knew Philip Scott. Miss Metal had gone out with Philip Scott.
    â€œ Ach Gott! That, too? Jealousy, too?”
    Miss Metal knew Philip Scott through and through and she knew—everyone knew—about men like Hanno. “Like you, Hanno!” Men like you got around a girl, Hanno, when she was stage-struck, theatre-crazy. Men like Hanno made promises, and girls like Milly fell for them and then when the girl got into trouble, men like him married them off to decent guys like Philip Scott. Philip Scott thought he was wonderful. Philip Scott thought Hanno was so wonderful because he had been on Broadway and everyone knew him and he was such a celebrity. Philip Scott thought it was so wonderful for the college when a Broadway and Hollywood big shot condescended to work in their theatre.
    â€œShe told Puppchen that I had seduced Miss Mildred?”
    She had told Puppchen, but Puppchen hadn’t believed it for a minute, not for a minute.
    â€œ Ach, ” he said. Then he said, “Miss Mildred is dead now, Anni.…”
    â€œYes, dead.”
    â€œShe can’t tell them that I never touched her. She can’t throw Miss Metal’s stupid lie back in her teeth.” God, God, if only Puppchen knew it was a lie! If the rest of them believed Miss Metal … If they think that I was the child’s father and that the boy came to Felix’s house to—to knock his block off.… Or, he thought, to blackmail him. Suppose they believed that the boy had come there to Felix’s house to blackmail him. How could he prove that it was an accident, if all now believed Miss Metal? He wiped his hand across his face.
    Anni said, “I know. It is bad, Hanno. It is very bad.”
    He looked at the K.K.K. and turned away. “Anni, if they call it murder … if they call it a murder because they think they have found a motive …”
    She said, “They will call it murder, Hanno.”
    â€œThanks! Thanks, Anni. For what you did to me, thanks.”
    â€œHanno—let me tell you …”
    â€œThat it was Miss Metal who knew about the funk hole and showed it to the police?”
    â€œHanno, let me tell you! If you will listen, Hanno.”
    He said, “So?”
    So Puppchen had not believed Miss Metal. Puppchen had defended him. Yes, Miss Mildred had been pregnant, Puppchen said, and that was why it had been necessary for her to marry Philip Scott. But, Puppchen said, he, Hanno, had helped Miss Mildred only because he was a good man, not because he was in any way responsible. He had helped Miss Mildred the way he would help anyone who was in trouble.
    Then who was the father? If he wasn’t the father, who was the father?