CHAPTER V.
IVOR DOES WHAT HE CAN FOR MAXINE "How long a time do you think I had been in this room, Monsieur," she asked, "before you--rather rudely, I must say--broke in upon my conversation with my friend ?" "You had been here exactly three minutes," replied the Commissary of Police.
"As much as that?
I should have thought less.

We had to greet each other, after having been parted for many months; and still, in the three minutes, you believe that we had time to concoct a plot of some sort, and to find some safe corner--all the while in semi-darkness--for the hiding of a thing important to the police--a bomb, perhaps?
You must think us very clever." "I know that you are very clever, Mademoiselle." "Perhaps I ought to thank you for the compliment," she answered, allowing anger to warm her voice at last; "but this is almost beyond a joke.

A woman comes to the rooms of a friend.

Both of them are so placed that they prefer her call not to be talked about.

For that reason, and for the woman's sake, the friend chooses to take a name that isn't his--as he has a right to do.