it away. I
was getting hungry, and I was afraid to ring for breakfast. It was a
positively poisonous position. Finally, after a lot of thought, I got
up, bolted the door, unpacked the blasted box and shoved all the
tobacco in the drawers of the wardrobe. Luckily there was a key. The
kit I disposed naturally enough. Then I had a bath and dressed.

"As I was fastening my collar, the telephone went. It was the _Gare du
Nord_. I jammed the receiver back.

"As I passed through the hall, a clerk dashed after me 'The _Gare du
Nord_,' he said, 'were insisting upon seeing me about a case of mine.'
I replied that I was busy all day, and could see nobody before six
o'clock. I didn't mention that my train went at five. It was as well
I didn't argue, for, as I left the hotel, a station official entered.
I leapt into a taxi and told the driver to go to _Notre Dame_. Not
that I felt like Church, but it was the first place I could think of.
Somebody shouted after me, but--well, you know how they drive in Paris.
I stopped round the second corner, discharged the taxi, and walked to a
restaurant. By rights, I should have been ravenous. As it was, the
food stuck in my throat. A bottle of lime-juice, however, pulled me
together. After luncheon I went to a cinema--I had to do something.
Besides, the darkness attracted me.... I fancy I dozed for a bit. Any
way, the first thing I remember was a couple of men being arrested in
the lounge of a hotel. It was most realistic. What was more, the
clerk who had run after me in the morning and the clerk on the screen
might have been twins.... I imagine that my hair rose upon my head,
and for the second time it seemed certain that I had mislaid my paunch.

"I got out of the place somehow, to find that it was snowing. For the
next hour I drove up and down the _Champs Elysees_. I only hope the
driver enjoyed it more than I did. At last, when pneumonia seemed very
near, I told him to drive to the hotel.

"I fairly whipped through the hall and into the lift. As this
ascended, a page arrived at the gate and spoke upward. I didn't hear
what he said.

"When I was in a hot bath, the telephone went. I let the swine ring.
Finally somebody came and knocked at the door. Of my wisdom I hadn't
bolted it, so, after waiting a little, they entered. I lay in the bath
like the dead. After a good look round, they went away....

"By twenty past four I'd dressed, and repacked the case. I