Once she waved the men and girls who stood talking to her on one side, and Duncombe fancied that it was because she desired a better view of him.
Suddenly he was startled by a voice close at hand.

He looked up.

The woman at the desk was speaking to him.
"Monsieur would be well advised," she said, "if he departed." Duncombe looked at her in amazement.

She was writing rapidly in her book, and her eyes were fixed upon her work.

If he had not actually heard her, it would have been hard to believe that she had spoken.
"But why, Madame ?" he asked.