At last Sylvia got up from the hard cane chair on which she had been sitting.

There had come over her, in the half-darkness, a very peculiar sensation—­an odd feeling that there was something alive in the room.  She looked down, half expecting to see some small animal crouching under the table, or hiding by the walnut-wood buffet behind her.

But, no; nothing but the round table, and the six chairs stiffly placed against the wall, met her eyes.  And yet, still that feeling that there was in the room some sentient creature besides herself persisted.

She opened the door giving into the hall, and walked through the short passage which divided the house into two portions, into the tiny “salon.”

Here also the closed shutters gave the room a curious, eerie look of desolate greyness.  But Sylvia’s eyes, already accustomed to the half-darkness next door, saw everything perfectly.

The little sitting-room looked mean and shabby.  There was not a flower, not even a book or a paper, to relieve its prim ugliness.  The only ornaments were a gilt clock on the mantelpiece, flanked with two sham Empire candelabra.  The shutters were fastened closely, and the room was dreadfully hot and airless.

Once more Sylvia wondered why the Wachners preferred to live in this cheerless way, with a servant who only came for a few hours each day, rather than at an hotel or boarding-house.

And then she reminded herself that, after all, the silent, gaunt man, and his talkative, voluble wife, seemed to be on exceptionally good terms the one with the other.  Perhaps they really preferred being alone together than in a more peopled atmosphere.

While moving aimlessly about the room, Sylvia began to feel unaccountably nervous and oppressed.  She longed to be away from this still, empty house, and yet it seemed absurd to leave just as the Wachners would be returning home.

After a few more minutes, however, the quietude, and the having absolutely nothing to do with which to wile away the time, affected Sylvia’s nerves.

It was, after all, quite possible that the Wachners intended to wait in Paris till the heat of the day was over.  In that case they would not be back till seven o’clock.

The best thing she could do would be to leave a note inviting Madame Wachner and L’Ami Fritz to dinner at the Villa du Lac.  Count Paul was to be in Paris this evening, so his eyes would not be offended by the sight of the people of whom he so disapproved.  Madame Wachner would probably be glad to dine out, the more so that no proper meal seemed to have been prepared by that unpleasant day-servant.  Why, the woman had not even laid the cloth for her employers’ supper!

Sylvia looked instinctively round for paper and envelopes, but there was no writing-table, not even a pencil and paper, in the little drawing-room.  How absurd and annoying!

But, stay—­somewhere in the house there must be writing materials.