OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

THE SAILORS' RENDEZVOUS 263
Discreetly he took it out of his pocket. The woman had sat down
again.
" Well, waiter! Where's my lemonade?"
" I thought... The gentleman said . •."
" I ordered a lemonade! "
It was the rather fleshy line of the neck, the bosom, full butiirm,
voluptuously resilient.
The same way of dressing and the same taste in glossy silks in
loud colours.
Maigret dropped the portrait so that his neighbour couldn't help
seeing it.
And she did see it. She looked at the inspector as if she were
trying to place him in her memory. But if she was worried she did
not show it.
Five minutes, ten minutes passed. Then the purr of a car came
from far off and grew louder. The grey car approached the terrace,
stopped and started again as if the driver could not make up his
mind definitely to go away.
"Gaston!..."
She stood up and made signs to her friend. This time she seized
her bag, and a moment later she was in the car.
The three women at the next table followed her with disapproving
eyes. The young man with the kodak turned round.
The grey car was already disappearing with its engine throbbing.
" Waiter. ... Where can one get a car? "
" I don't think you'll find one in Yport. There is one that sometimes
takes people to Fecamp or Etretat, but just today I saw it
going off with some English people...."
The inspector's large fingers drummed a rapid tattoo on the table.
" Give me a road map. And get me die Fecamp police station
on the telephone.... Have you ever seen those people before? "
" The ones who were quarrelling? Nearly every day this week.
They lunched here yesterday. I think they come from Le
Havre...."
All the families had gone from the beach, which was now bathed
in the stillness of a summer evening. A black boat gravitated imperceptibly
towards the line of the horizon, went into the sun and
came out at the other side as if through a paper hoop.