"No!" he said, adding hastily, "I work nights. I usually sleep during the day."
"Oh, then I wouldn't want to disturb your sleep," said Mrs. Tibbets, at the foot of the stairs. "I'll wait until you go to work, and then I'll—"
"Please!" Vandor approached her, his hands spread wide in supplication. "I like everything just as it is!"
"Well, it's your room ..." she sighed, starting upstairs. "If there's anything I can do—"
"There is something," said Vandor. "Will you please replace the padlock on the door in your kitchen? I'll be using the cellar door, if you don't mind, as a sort of private entrance...."
Mrs. Tibbets hesitated, then thought of the five hundred dollar advance, and smiled. "Certainly. Do as you like, Mister Thobal. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," said Vandor.
"Oh," she said, at the top of the stairs, "did I tell you that you have kitchen privileges? Perhaps I should leave the padlock off the door just in case...."
"I never eat—at the place I live," he said. "I usually dine out. Thank you just the same."
"Very well," she said a little tartly, and exited to the kitchen and re-padlocked the door. She was just snapping the padlock shut when Mrs. Leonetti entered the kitchen.