Here Captain De Barsac took leave of us with all the delightful and engaging courtesy of a well-bred Frenchman; and he seemed to be grateful for the privilege of showing us about over a district as tiresomely familiar to him as his own barracks.
I could do no less than ask him to call on us, though his devotion to Dulcima both on shipboard and here made me a trifle wary.
"We are stopping," said I, "at the Hôtel de l'Univers——"
He started and gazed at me so earnestly that I asked him why he did so.
"The—the Hôtel de l'Univers?" he repeated, looking from me to Dulcima and from Dulcima to Alida.
"Is it not respectable?" I demanded, somewhat alarmed.
"—But—but perfectly, monsieur. It is, of course, the very best hotel of that kind——"
"What kind?" I asked.
"Why—for the purpose. Ah, monsieur, I had no idea that you came to Paris for that. I am so sorry, so deeply grieved to hear it. But of course all will be well——"
He stopped and gazed earnestly at Dulcima.