“Oh”—he shifted uneasily—“she was all right———”

“You'll be getting back to her,” I said.

He looked at me. Then he made a grimace with his mouth.

“Not me,” he said. “Back your life it's a plant.”

“You don't think the cher petit bébé is a little Alfred?”

“It might be,” he said.

“Only might?”

“Yes—an' there's lots of mites in a pound of cheese.” He laughed boisterously but uneasily.

“What did she say, exactly?” he asked.

I began to repeat, as well as I could, the phrases of the letter: