Mr Hire's Engagement by Georges Simenon Read Free Book Online Page B

lips to murmur:
    'Good evening . . .'
    But he said nothing, and she went on along the pavement, with a more pronounced swaying of her plump hips, over which her skirt stretched tight at every step.
    As they drew closer to Paris, there were more lights and more people. The girl went on and on, a little tired, but at an obstinate steady pace. Coming to a square, she got into a tram without even turning round to see if she were still being followed. Perhaps she didn't care now?
    Mr. Hire sat down three places away from her. The tram went along some crowded main streets, with numerous cafés, little booths where oddments were on sale, and couples with arms round each other's waists. Mr. Hire was pale, probably from fatigue. His complexion had turned leaden, as it sometimes did, with dark circles round his eyes, and he seemed to have been deflated. He looked less childish, less plump, less odd. His eyes were no longer expressionless, and, like a dog's eyes, which they resembled in colour, they seemed to be appealing for help.
    The girl was sitting opposite him. She was playing her part. She was pretending not to see him, to be at her ease, indifferent. Twice, she touched up her powder and rouge. Twice, too, she tugged at her skirt, as though she had caught Mr. Hire staring at her knees.
    The scenery was growing familiar. Without even looking at the windows one recognized the neon lights of the Place d'Italie, then the cafés of the Avenue, then the Porte.
    'Terminus! All change.'
    She got out first and paused for a second on the edge of the pavement.
    Twenty yards further on, other trams were waiting to start for Villejuif. The road was dark all the way, and passers-by few and far between.
    However, she started off. She had first bought a franc's worth of chestnuts, and she ate them as she went along, slowing down when she had difficulty in shelling one of them. She had walked five hundred yards when she jumped, as though missing something. She turned round and found no one behind her.
    Mr. Hire was no longer there. A tram went by on the other side of the road, and there he was, sitting in the reddish light next to one of its windows.
    To reach the next stop, she had another five hundred yards to walk. When she got there, there was no tram in sight; she went on to the next stop and thus, by gradual stages, she reached Villejuif on foot. She bought some more chestnuts at the crossroads. She was tired. Her heels were rubbed sore, and the soles of her feet were hurting, because her shoes were so highly arched. In spite of the temperature she was so hot that she had pushed her green hat to the back of her head, and it was like this that she went into the house, her bag of chestnuts in her hand.
    Out of habit, she glanced into the lodge. She saw the concierge, who had put her spectacles on and was reading the newspaper, her elbows on the table. Opposite her, the inspector was warming his hands above the stove. She went in. 'Don't get up! Have a chestnut? . . .'
    She blew as she spoke, because the chestnut in her mouth was hot. The inspector took two. He, too, was obviously tired and discouraged. 'You don't know where Mr. Hire can have got to, I suppose?'
    'Me? How should I know?'
    'She goes out every Sunday afternoon with her young man,' explained the concierge without looking up from her paper. 'Was it a good match?'
    The inspector gazed at the stove with annoyance.
    'He did it on purpose!'
    'What?'
    'Jumped on a moving bus. I was expecting him to take the tram, as usual. So he must have been going somewhere he didn't want to be followed.'
    'Does it interest you very much?'
    'I'll say it does!'
    'I might go and have a word with him.'
    The concierge looked up. The spectacles altered her appearance, made her look older, but rather distinguished. 'Are you crazy?'
    The girl flung her head back and laughed. You could see scraps of chestnut in her mouth.
    'What d'you bet I make him come clean?' she called, as she opened the door.
    And she