“I’m all alone in the flat. I’m disinfecting it.”
“Then that is sulphur that I smell?”
She nodded. “Excuse me while I finish this door,” she said.
He closed the front-door. “But you seem to be quite at home here!” he observed.
“I ought to be,” said she.
He glanced again inquiringly up and down the corridor. “And you are really all alone now?” he asked, as though to be doubly sure.
She explained the circumstances.
“I owe you my most sincere excuses for bringing you here,” he said confidentially.
“But why?” she replied, looking intently at her door. “They have been most kind to me. Nobody could have been kinder. And Madame Laurence being such a good nurse——”
“It is true,” said he. “That was a reason. In effect they are both very good-natured little women.... You comprehend, as journalist it arrives to me to know all kinds of people ...” He snapped his fingers ... “And as we were opposite the house. In fine, I pray you to excuse me.”