“Yes.”
“Mr. Barres has not returned?”
“No.”
Thessalie bit her lip, hesitated, turned to go. And at the same instant Dulcie saw the one-eyed man at the street door, peering through the iron grille.
Thessalie saw him, too, stiffened to marble, stood staring straight at him.
He turned and went away up the street. But Dulcie, to whom the incident signified nothing in particular except the impudence of a one-eyed man, was not prepared 84 for the face which Thessalie Dunois turned toward her. Not a vestige of colour remained in it, and her dark eyes seemed feverish and too large.
“You need not give Mr. Barres any message from me,” she said in an altered voice, which sounded strained and unsteady. “Please do not even say that I came or mention my name.... May I ask it of you?”
Dulcie, very silent in her surprise, made no reply.
“Please may I ask it of you?” whispered Thessalie. “Do you mind not telling anybody that I was here?”
“If—you wish it.”