He did so, and this time found Eve, as well as her companion, ready to go out.  No remark or inquiry concerning her health passed his lips; he saw that she was recovering from the crisis she had passed through, whatever its real nature.  Eve shook hands with him, and smiled, though as if discharging an obligation.

“Can you spare time to show us something of Paris?” she asked.

“I am your official guide.  Make use of me whenever it pleases you.”

“I don’t feel able to go very far.  Isn’t there some place where we could sit down in the open air?”

A carriage was summoned, and they drove to the Fields Elysian.  Eve benefited by the morning thus spent.  She left to Patty most of the conversation, but occasionally made inquiries, and began to regard things with a healthy interest.  The next day they all visited the Louvre, for a light rain was falling, and here Hilliard found an opportunity of private talk with Eve; they sat together whilst Patty, who cared little for pictures, looked out of a window at the Seine.

“Do you like the hotel I chose?” he began.

“Everything is very nice.”

“And you are not sorry to be here?”

“Not in one way.  In another I can’t understand how I come to be here at all.”

“Your physician has ordered it.”

“Yes—­so I suppose it’s all right.”

“There’s one thing I’m obliged to speak of.  Do you understand French money?”

Eve averted her face, and spoke after a slight delay.

“I can easily learn.”

“Yes.  You shall take this Paris guide home with you.  You’ll find all information of that sort in it.  And I shall give you an envelope containing money—­just for your private use.  You have nothing to do with the charges at the hotel.”

“I’ve brought it on myself; but I feel more ashamed than I can tell you.”

“If you tried to tell me I shouldn’t listen.  What you have to do now is to get well.  Very soon you and Patty will be able to find your way about together; then I shall only come with you when you choose to invite me.  You have my address.”

He rose and broke off the dialogue.

For a week or more Eve’s behaviour in his company underwent little change.  In health she decidedly improved, but Hilliard always found her reserved, coldly amicable, with an occasional suggestion of forced humility which he much disliked.  From Patty he learnt that she went about a good deal and seemed to enjoy herself.

“We don’t always go together,” said the girl.  “Yesterday and the day before Eve was away by herself all the afternoon.  Of course she can get on all right with her French.  She takes to Paris as if she’d lived here for years.”

On the day after, Hilliard received a postcard in which Eve asked him to be in a certain room of the Louvre at twelve o’clock.  He kept the appointment, and found Eve awaiting him alone.