“You’ve given up looking for your friends, have you? And you are returning to America?” She looked pleased.

“On the contrary,” I said. “After much searching I have managed to locate my friends. It is as I suspected. They went to visit acquaintances in a small village in Normandy not knowing that typhoid had broken out there and were immediately placed under quarantine…”

“Mon dieu—I hope they will not think of returning here, bringing a dreadful disease with them,” she said.

“They will not. They have decided to stay in the village, and now that the quarantine has been lifted, they want me to join them. A man will be coming for their belongings. They have asked me to pack their trunks for them.”

“So they will not be returning to this house?”

“No, madame. Feel free to let the rooms again,” I said.

“They will just be taking their personal effects, no?” she asked. “I know that they purchased some items of furniture, but they will not need this out in the country…” She spread her arms expressively.

“They only want their personal effects,” I said. “Anything else they donate to you.”

“Ah,” she said, really looking pleased now. “Please give the ladies my best compliments when you see them and tell them I hope they will have fond memories of their stay in Paris.”

“I will do that,” I said.

“If you need help with the heavy trunks, my husband will be home later,” she said.

“Thank you, but I understand the carter will be bringing a boy to help him.”

As I started up the stairs she called after me, “So how did they finally contact you? They sent no letter here.”

“They were not allowed to send a letter, owing to the quarantine and the possibility of contamination on the envelope,” I said. “Those postcards led me to an acquaintance who knew where they had gone.”