Well, was there? After that fall down the area steps she didn’t feel so sure about an hotel. Three o’clock in the morning is a bit tricky anyway, and if her clothes were in a mess and there was green slime on her face-no, it didn’t really seem to be a very good plan. She said frankly,
“I was thinking about an hotel, but I don’t know that it would do. You see, I had a fall down some area steps-that was when I must have twisted my ankle. I don’t really feel that I can confront a respectable night porter.”
“You don’t live in town?”
“No-just up for the day. My name is Ione Muir.”
“I think I said mine was Jim Severn.”
“Yes. Well, about where I’m to go-I suppose I could knock up Elizabeth Tremayne or Jessica Thome, but I’d much rather not. Elizabeth would make a good story out of it, and Jessica would go round saying how dreadful it was for weeks. They don’t keep the waiting-rooms open at a railway station, do they? No, I’m practically sure they don’t. I’m afraid it will just have to be an hotel.”
He said in rather a hesitating manner,
“I’ve got a flat, and my old nurse keeps house for me. She’s the most respectable person I ever met.” Ione broke into laughter.
“And just what, do you suppose, she’ll say when you come home with a strange female at three o’clock in the morning!”
CHAPTER 3
There is something strange about being alone in an empty house. Ione sat on the second step from the bottom of the stair and did what she could to her face and her hair. She had a pocket-comb in her bag, and a compact, and some cleansing-tissue, but what the face really wanted was hot water and soap, and the fact that there was green slime on her hands didn’t make things any easier. She used all the cleansing-tissue, but the result as viewed in a three-inch mirror by the light which was coming through the transom was discouraging. The smudges under her eyes were because of being lost in the fog and falling down steps, but the general greenish tinge was probably due to the fact that the tissue had merely spread the slime instead of removing it. She combed her hair, and thought she looked like one of the plainer ghosts.