THE WISDOM OF FATHER BROWN
friends, that sort of thing, or you'd have gone through into the parlour . . . and you couldn't have gone in because you were ill, or you'd have spoken to the woman of the place, who's obviously respectable . . . besides, you don't look ill in that way, but only unhappy. . . . This street is the only original long lane that has no turning; and the houses on both sides are shut up. . . . I could only suppose that you'd seen somebody coming whom you didn't want to meet; and found the public-house was the only shelter in this wilderness of stone. . . . I don't think I went beyond the licence of a stranger in glancing at the only man who passed immediately after. . . . And as I thought he looked like the wrong sort . . . and you looked like the right sort . . . I held myself ready to help if he annoyed you; that is all. As for my friend, he'll be back soon and he certainly can't find out anything by stumping down a road like this. . . . I didn't think he could."
"Then why did you send him out?" she cried, leaning forward with yet warmer curiosity. She had the proud, impetuous face that goes with reddish colouring and a Roman nose, as it did in Marie Antoinette.
He looked at her steadily for the first time, and said, "Because I hoped you would speak to me."
She looked back at him for some time with a
138
