“ Eloignez-la on some excuse,” he nodded to me from the sofa. “I can’t endure this Russian sympathy, et puis ça m’embête .”

But she went away of herself. I noticed that he kept looking towards the door and listening for sounds in the passage.

“ Il faut être prêt, voyez-vous ,” he said, looking at me significantly, “ chaque moment ⁠ ⁠… they may come and take one and, phew!⁠—a man disappears.”

“Heavens! who’ll come? Who will take you?”

“ Voyez-vous, mon cher , I asked straight out when he was going away, what would they do to me now.”