"Oh, I know," he thought; "the poor man must move about his rooms in a rubber-tired wheel chair."
He was not mistaken. Scarcely was the door opened when he caught sight of an old man of much distinction seated in a wheel chair. This invalid greeted the journalist pleasantly.
"M. Fandor?"
"The same, sir."
M. Mahon pushed forward his chair and motioned to his visitor to come in.
Fandor entered a room in which the curtains were closely drawn and which was brilliantly illuminated with electric lights, although it was the middle of the afternoon. Was it a trap? The journalist instinctively hesitated in the doorway. But behind him a cordial voice called:
"Come in, you all kinds of an idiot!"
The door clicked behind him and the invalid, getting out of his chair, burst into a fit of laughter.
"As you see!"