"Never! I am expected to dinner at Asnieres, and so—"
She was about to go away despite Mme. Charman's attempts to detain her, when M. Lecoq thought it was time to interfere.
"Why, am I mistaken?" cried he, as if amazed; "is it really Miss Jenny whom I have the honor of seeing?"
She scanned him with a half-angry, half-surprised air, and said:
"Yes, it is I; what of it?"
"What! Are you so forgetful? Don't you recognize me?"
"No, not at all."
"Yet I was one of your admirers once, my dear, and used to breakfast with you when you lived near the Madeleine; in the count's time, you know."
He took off his spectacles as if to wipe them, but really to launch a furious look at Mme. Charman, who, not daring to resist, beat a hasty retreat.
"I knew Tremorel well in other days," resumed the detective. "And—by the bye, have you heard any news of him lately?"