"Then, after you, Monsieur.

They are opening the shutters.

Doubtless the table is laid, and Mademoiselle is expecting us.

After you, Monsieur, if you please.

A few hours ago I should have gone first, for you, in this house"-- with a sinister smile--"were at home! Now, we have changed places." Whatever he meant by the gibe--and some smack of an evil jest lurked in his tone--he played the host so far as to urge his bewildered companion along the passage and into the living-chamber on the left, where he had seen from without that his orders to light and lay were being executed.