Coralie meanwhile was looking after Miss Sharp with an expression upon her clever face which only a Frenchwoman is able to put there--It said as plainly as words, "So this is the reason Nicholas!--Well you have chosen something very every-day and inexpensive this time!--Men are certainly crazy in their tastes!" I pretended not to notice, and so she spoke. "Why if you can come here cannot you come to Deauville, Nicholas?--there must be some irresistible attraction stronger than to be with your friends!" "Yes--he is an excellent Swedish masseur who is glued to Paris.--Also I like solitude sometimes--." "Solitude!" and Coralie glanced at Miss Sharp's rapidly disappearing figure--. "_Hein?_" I would not permit myself to grow angry. "The book is nearly finished--you can tell the rest--." "That old book! You were much more entertaining before you commenced it, Nicholas! Perhaps the idea has come to me why!" I would not be drawn--I threw the war into the enemy's country. "You are staying at the Reservoirs?" I saw that she was--and that now the thought of my being there disconcerted her--. "But no!" she lied sweetly--"I am merely out here for the day to see Louise, who has a son in the hospital--." It was my turn to say-- "_Tiens?_" And then we both laughed--and I let them go on--. But when I got into my salon--I heard no typing--only there was a note from Miss Sharp to say that some slight thing had gone wrong with the machine, so she had taken the work to finish it at home--. I cursed Coralie and all the fluffies in the world, and then in pain laid down upon my bed. IX _Saturday Morning:_ Yesterday I was so restless I could not settle to anything. I read pages and pages of Plato and was conscious that the words were going over in my head without conveying the slightest meaning, and that the other part of my mind was absorbed with thoughts of Miss Sharp--. If I only dared to be natural with her we surely could be friends, but I am always obsessed with the fear that she will leave me if I transgress in the slightest beyond the line she has marked between us--. I see that she is determined to remain only the secretary, and I realize that it is her breeding which makes her act as she does--. If she were familiar or friendly with me, she would feel it was not correct to come to my flat alone--She only comes at all because the money is so necessary to her--and having to come, she protects her dignity by wearing this ice mask.--I know that she was affronted by Coralie's look on Thursday, and that is why she went home pretending the typing machine was out of order--Now if any more of these _contretemps_ happen she will probably give me warning. Burton instinctively sensed this, and that is why he disapproved of my asking her to lunch--If she had been an ordinary typist Burton would not have objected in the least,--as I said before, Burton knows the world!