quayside called Madame
Leonore closed her outstretched hand before my face and opened it at once
to show its emptiness in illustration of her expressed opinion. Dominic
never moved.

I wished good-night to these two and left the cafe for the fresh air and
the dark spaciousness of the quays augmented by all the width of the old
Port where between the trails of light the shadows of heavy hulls
appeared very black, merging their outlines in a great confusion. I left
behind me the end of the Cannebiere, a wide vista of tall houses and
much-lighted pavements losing itself in the distance with an extinction
of both shapes and lights. I slunk past it with only a side glance and
sought the dimness of quiet streets away from the centre of the usual
night gaieties of the town. The dress I wore was just that of a sailor
come ashore from some coaster, a thick blue woollen shirt or rather a
sort of jumper with a knitted cap like a tam-o'-shanter worn very much on
one side and with a red tuft of wool in the centre. This was even the
reason why I had lingered so long in the cafe. I didn't want to be
recognized in the streets in that costume and still less to be seen
entering the house in the street of the Consuls. At that hour when the
performances were over and all the sensible citizens in their beds I
didn't hesitate to cross the Place of the Opera. It was dark, the
audience had already dispersed. The rare passers-by I met hurrying on
their last affairs of the day paid no attention to me at all. The street
of the Consuls I expected to find empty, as usual at that time of the
night. But as I turned a corner into it I overtook three people who must
have belonged to the locality. To me, somehow, they appeared strange.
Two girls in dark cloaks walked ahead of a tall man in a top hat. I
slowed down, not wishing to pass them by, the more so that the door of
the house was only a few yards distant. But to my intense surprise those
people stopped at it and the man in the top hat, producing a latchkey,
let his two companions through, followed them, and with a heavy slam cut
himself off from my astonished self and the rest of mankind.

In the stupid way people have I stood and meditated on the sight, before
it occurred to me that this was the most useless thing to do. After
waiting a little longer to let the others get away from the hall I
entered in my turn. The small gas-jet seemed not to have been touched
ever since that d