"Free in the future as in the present? She has nothing to fear from you?"

"Nor from any one else."

"Whatever happens?"

"Whatever happens. I have forgotten her name and where she lives."

"Thank you. And au revoir. For we shall meet again, Mr. Shears, shall we not?"

"I have no doubt we shall."

A more or less heated explanation followed between the Englishman and Ganimard and was cut short by Shears with a certain roughness:

"I am very sorry, M. Ganimard, that I can't agree with you. But I have no time to persuade you now. I leave for England in an hour."

"But ... the blonde lady?"

"I know no such person."