‘Magda!’

‘What is it?’

I returned.

‘You are magnificent,’ he replied, with charming, impulsive eagerness, his eyes resting upon me long. He was the old Diaz again. ‘I can’t thank you. But when you come back I shall play to you.’

I smiled.

‘Till four o’clock,’ I said.

‘Magda,’ he called again, just as I was leaving, ‘bring one of your books with you, will you?’

I hesitated, with my hand on the door. When I gave him my name he had made no sign that it conveyed to him anything out of the ordinary. That was exactly like Diaz.

‘Have you read any of them?’ I asked loudly, without moving from the door.

‘No,’ he answered. ‘But I have heard of them.’