“Did I see someone?” she asked. “Whom did I see?”
She asked the question quite innocently in a sort of dreamy reverie. I raised my voice in mock severity, the way one calls a child to order:
“‘Whom did I see!’ How should I know, dearie, whom you saw? I was asking you?”
She started imperceptibly, and then quite changing tone and manner, she resumed:
“Oh, I made a mistake ... Thursday! I didn’t go into town, Thursday! It was Tuesday, and I took the train ... for Beaulieu!”
“I see ... so your mother is at Beaulieu again. You paid her a visit?”
“Nonsense! Mother is at Aix! This is September, you see!”
“Why Beaulieu, then?”
“Why Beaulieu?”