Then I distinguished the clang of heavy wooden gates closed behind me, and a moment or two later the carriage door was unlocked and opened.

I stepped out blinking into a covered passage paved with cobbles and apparently leading down to a mews; but it was all in darkness, and I had no time to make any detailed observations, as the carriage had drawn up opposite a side door which was open and in which stood a woman holding a lighted candle.
"Is that the doctor ?" she asked, speaking with a rather pronounced German accent and shading the candle with her hand as she peered at me.
I answered in the affirmative, and she then exclaimed: "I am glad you have come.

Mr.Weiss will be so relieved.

Come in, please." I followed her across a dark passage into a dark room, where she set the candle down on a chest of drawers and turned to depart.

At the door, however, she paused and looked back.
"It is not a very nice room to ask you into," she said.