"You have come from Germany? Is that so?"
"Yes, I arrived yesterday."
"May I ask for your passport, if you please?"
She started. "Why? As a matter of fact I haven't one; but I am known at the British Consulate here. They suggested my coming to this hotel."
"No passport? Umph!" I grunted with a solemn wag of the head. "Is it so that you came from Berlin and left there somewhat hurriedly?"
"Oh, yes. I was there at the outbreak of the war and they meant to send me to an internment camp; I ran away."
"Umph!" I grunted again, fingering my imperial with my glove monstrosities; a gesture which she noticed with a flickering smile. "Were you alone, madam?"
She hesitated. "No; but I cannot say more than that." Staunch little beggar, she wouldn't give me away until she knew more.
"You must speak frankly to me, madam. I know the person who accompanied you. I ask you because I must be certain who you are."
She wasn't to be drawn by that. "I must know first why you come to me," she said with one of her quick head gestures.