"The Herr Rat had a bathing appointment," she said, shutting the door after
her. "May I come in? Pray do not move. You look like a little Persian
kitten. Now, tell me something really interesting about your life. When I
meet new people I squeeze them dry like a sponge. To begin with--you are
married."

I admit the fact.

"Then, dear child, where is your husband?"

I said he was a sea-captain on a long and perilous voyage.

"What a position to leave you in--so young and so unprotected."

She sat down on the sofa and shook her finger at me playfully.

"Admit, now, that you keep your journeys secret from him. For what man
would think of allowing a woman with such a wealth of hair to go wandering
in foreign countries? Now, supposing that you lost your purse at midnight
in a snowbound train in North Russia?"

"But I haven't the slightest intention--" I began.

"I don't say that you have. But when you said good-bye to your dear man I
am positive that you had no intention of coming here. My dear, I am a
woman of experience, and I know the world. While he is away you have a
fever in your blood. Your sad heart flies for comfort to these foreign
lands. At home you cannot bear the sight of that empty bed---it is like
widowhood. Since the death of my dear husband I have never known an hour's