I entered the shop alone, Wheeler keeping watch in the street. I stood at the counter while Madame Lourbet served a customer, and then she turned to me.
"What do you require, monsieur?"
"A little information, madame."
"Well, monsieur?"
"In private, madame," I said, "unless you wish all the world to know."
She gathered from my tone that I had not come as a friend, and she was instantly on her guard.
"What is it, monsieur, that I should not wish all the world to know?"
"I advise that we speak in private," I replied.
"If I r-refuse, monsieur?"
"You will take the consequences, and we will converse before your customers."