midday
The extraordinary accuracy of Mr. Keller 's memory was proverbial in the office . Remembering the compliment which he had paid to her sense of responsibility as Mr. Engelman 's successor , Mrs. Wagner was not quite satisfied to take it for granted that he had made a mistake -- even on the plain evidence of the ledger . A reference to the duplicate entry , in her private account-book , would at once remove even the shadow of a doubt . The last day of the old year was bright and frosty ; the clear midday light fell on the open page before her . She looked again at the entry , thus recorded in figures -- `` 15,000 florins '' -- and observed a trifling circumstance which had previously escaped her . The strokes which represented the figures `` 15 '' were unquestionably a little , a very little , thicker than the strokes which represented the three zeros or `` noughts '' that followed . Had a hair got into the pen of the head-clerk , who had made the entry ?