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Rh I was on my feet, slipping toward the door, for I had heard a step on the stair and had no intention of being potted from behind the door-jamb. It proved to be Victor, however, and he looked surprised and rather startled, I thought, to find me confronting him. "Has that man gone?" I asked sharply.

"Oui, m'sieu."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing, m'sieu, except that he thought it probable that mam'selle would regret not having allowed him to do his work."

Léontine had risen from her chair and gone to the window. I followed her and saw something which puzzled and disturbed me. Directly opposite stood Rosalie's taxicab and inside it was Chu-Chu. Rosalie herself was in the act of cranking the motor, and as we looked it started off and she stepped up to take her seat.

The car started ahead and Rosalie made a turn which brought her for a moment head on to the house. Léontine had drawn aside the curtains and we were standing side by side, looking out over the top of the ivy-covered iron fence, for the dining-room was in the entresol. As she turned, Rosalie looked up and saw us standing there in the open window; and, whether because she suspected something and acted out of malice or whether from a sort of bravado before Chu-Chu I don't know, but Léontine flung her arm carelessly round my shoulder—almost round my neck.

I saw Rosalie's teeth come together and she threw out her chin with a sort of contemptuous air;