But she lingered a moment and gave a timid, joyless smile.

Newman was disappointed, and his fingers stole half shyly half irritably into his waistcoat-pocket.

His informant noticed the movement.

"Thank God I am not a Frenchwoman," she said.

"If I were, I would tell you with a brazen simper, old as I am, that if you please, monsieur, my information is worth something.