She was now closer to the faceplate and was looking with curious eyes at the details of the laboratory—one of the finest in the world.
"What a strange place! What is it, and where are you?" she asked naïvely.
"New York," he drawled.
"That's a long way from here," she said brightly. "I wonder if you know where I am?"
"I can make a pretty shrewd guess," he returned. "To begin with, before I rectified your speech you spoke French, hence you are probably French. Secondly, you have a lamp burning in your room although it is only four o'clock in the afternoon here in New York. You also wear evening dress. It must be evening, and inasmuch as the clock on your mantelpiece points to nine I would say you are in France, as New York time is five hours ahead of French time."
"Clever, but not quite right. I am not French nor do I live in France. I am Swiss and I live in western Switzerland. Swiss time, you know, is almost the same as French time."
Both laughed. Suddenly she said:
"Your face looks so familiar to me, it seems I must have seen you before."
"That is possible," he admitted somewhat embarrassed. "You have perhaps seen one of my pictures."