She took him in with a single comprehensive glance that was polite
without being cordial. Her neck, he noticed, was extraordinarily supple
in spite of its proportions, for it turned so easily to follow him, and
the head it carried bowed so very flexibly.

"But when she looked at me, you know," said Vezin, with that little
apologetic smile in his brown eyes, and that faintly deprecating gesture
of the shoulders that was characteristic of him, "the odd notion came to
me that really she had intended to make quite a different movement, and
that with a single bound she could have leaped at me across the width of
that stone yard and pounced upon me like some huge cat upon a mouse."

He laughed a little soft laugh, and Dr. Silence made a note in his book
without interrupting, while Vezin proceeded in a tone as though he
feared he had already told too much and more than we could believe.

"Very soft, yet very active she was, for all her size and mass, and I
felt she knew what I was doing even after I had passed and was behind
her back. She spoke to me, and her voice was smooth and running. She
asked if I had my luggage, and was comfortable in my room, and then
added that dinner was at seven o'clock, and that they were very early
people in this little country town. Clearly, she intended to convey that
late hours were not encouraged."

Evidently, she contrived by voice and manner to give him the impression
that here he would be "managed," that everything would be arranged and
planned for him, and that he had nothing to do but fall into the groove
and obey. No decided action or sharp personal effort would be looked for
from him. It was the very reverse of the train. He walked quietly out
into the street feeling soothed and peaceful. He realised that he was in