“Alfred,” she said in a very quiet tone. I am bound to confess that Alfred nearly jumped out of his skin.
“My God! Queenie, is that you? Oh, my dear, what a turn you gave me. I’d no idea you were within a hundred miles of me. What’s the matter?” He sprang out of his chair and held her by both her elbows. “If anything’s the matter tell me at once; don’t break it to me.”
“Nothing’s the matter; I will explain it to you afterwards—I wanted to come to Paris, and I thought I might as well join you. Who is this lady?”
The noble Alfred drew a long breath of relief, gripped his wife’s elbows very hard indeed, and then bent forward and touched her lightly on either cheek.
“This lady is a client of the firm,” he said. “Let me make her known to you—Madame Raumonier.”
The Frenchwoman sprang to her feet, looking the very image of guilty surprise. “This is madame your wife?” she said, speaking excellent English.
“This is Mrs. Whittaker, my wife. Sit down, Queenie. Garçon, garçon, breakfast for madame. They make an excellent omelette aux fines herbes here, Queenie. Fresh coffee for madame. Sit down, Madame Raumonier, sit down.”
“You would like to be alone with madame your wife?”
“Not at all; I shall be alone with her presently, when you have finished breakfast.” He turned back to Regina. “Queenie,” he said, “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you. This just concludes the business which brought me over to Paris. I’ve had the greatest difficulty and trouble to get things settled. It’s such a disadvantage to a man in my position not to speak French well, and I am in the position of not speaking French at all, so I have had to do everything by means of madame’s translations, and she does not see the legal aspect as I should if I could read French as well as she can. I was going to telegraph to you this very day to beg you to come over. Some wave thought must have warned you that I was thinking of it.”
“No,” said Regina, deliberately sitting down by the table, and beginning carefully to peel the gloves off her hands. “No, Alfred, I do not think it was a wave thought. I wanted to come to Paris, and I came.”