interesting happenings. Eh bien , Mademoiselle, all through my life I have observed one thing—‘All one wants one gets!’ Who knows?” His face screwed itself up comically. “You may get more than you bargain for.”
“Is that a prophecy?” asked Katherine, smiling as she rose from the table.
The little man shook his head.
“I never prophesy,” he declared pompously. “It is true that I have the habit of being always right—but I do not boast of it. Good night, Mademoiselle, and may you sleep well.”
Katherine went back along the train amused and entertained by her little neighbour. She passed the open door of her friend’s compartment and saw the conductor making up the bed. The lady in the mink coat was standing looking out of the window. The second compartment, as Katherine saw through the communicating door, was empty, with rugs and bags heaped up on the seat. The maid was not there.
Katherine found her own bed prepared, and since she was tired, she went to bed and switched off her light about half-past nine.
She woke with a sudden start; how much time had passed she did not know. Glancing at her watch, she found that it had stopped. A feeling of intense uneasiness pervaded her and grew stronger moment by moment. At last she got up, threw her dressing-gown round her shoulders, and stepped out into the corridor. The whole train seemed wrapped in slumber. Katherine let the window down and sat by it for some minutes, drinking in the cool night air and trying vainly to calm her uneasy fears. She presently decided that she would go along to the end and ask the conductor for the right time so that she could set her watch. She found, however, that his little chair was vacant. She hesitated for a moment and then walked through into the next coach. She looked down the long, dim