“ ‘This person is one of your countrywomen,’ he said: ‘save her, if she is not dead.’ ”

“My countrywoman, on examination, turned out to be the English teacher at Madame Beck’s pensionnat . She was perfectly unconscious, perfectly bloodless, and nearly cold.”

“ ‘What does it all mean?’ ” was my inquiry.

“He communicated a curious account; that you had been to him that evening at confessional; that your exhausted and suffering appearance, coupled with some things you had said⁠—”

“Things I had said? I wonder what things!”