"How is it that you—an Englishman—speak French so well?" she asked.
"I lived in Paris for some years," he answered.
"Indeed! And yet you returned to—Norfolk, is it?"
He bowed.
"It is true, Madame!" he admitted.
"How droll!" she murmured. "Miss Poynton—she is an old friend of yours?"
"I am very anxious to see her, Madame!"
"Why?"
He hesitated. After all, his was no secret mission.
"I have reason to believe," he said, "that a mistake has been made in the identity of the body found in the Seine and supposed to be her brother's."