s often away, sometimes for a month or six weeks
together," and the gossiping woman was beginning a long and incoherent
story when the stranger interrupted her, pointing to a silver-framed
photograph of a young woman he had noticed on the mantelpiece.

"Is that Mme. Gurn?"

"M. Gurn is a bachelor," Mme. Doulenques replied. "I can't fancy him
married, with his roaming kind of life."

"Just a little friend of his, eh?" said the man in the soft hat, with a
wink and a meaning smile.

"Oh, no," said the concierge, shaking her head. "That photograph is not
a bit like her."

"So you know her, then?"

"I do and I don't. That's to say, when M. Gurn is in Paris, he often has
visits from a lady in the afternoon: a very fashionable lady, I can tell
you, not the sort that one often sees in this quarter. Why, the woman
who comes is a society lady, I am sure: she always has her veil down and
passes by my lodge ever so fast, and never has any conversation with me;
free with her money, too: it's very seldom she does not give me
something when she comes."

The stranger seemed to find the concierge's communications very
interesting, but they did not interrupt his mental inventory of the
room.

"In other words, your tenant does not keep too sharp an eye on his
money?" he suggested.

"No, indeed: the rent is always paid in advance, and sometimes M. Gurn
even pays two terms in advance because he says he never can tell if his
business won't be keeping him away when the rent falls due."

Just then a deep voice called up the staircase:

"Concierge: M. Gurn: have you any one of that name in the house?"

"Come up to the fifth floor," the concierge called back to the man. "I
am in his rooms now," and she went back into the flat. "Here's somebody
else for M. Gurn," she exclaimed.

"Does he have many visitors?" the stranger enquired.

"Hardly any, sir: that's why I'm so surprised."

Two men appeared; their blue blouses and metal-peaked caps proclaimed
them to be porters. The concierge turned to the man in the soft hat.

"I suppose these are your men, come to fetch the trunks?"

The stranger made a slight grimace, seemed to hesitate and finally made
up his mind to remain silent.

Rather surprised to see that the three men did not seem to be acquainted
with each other, the concierge was about to ask what it meant, when one
of the porters addressed her curtly:

"We've come from the South Steamship Company for four boxes from M.