about ten in the evening of the 29th December
* * * * * I wished her to remain at Chillon , intending , myself , to start for the Americas , whence any sudden impulse to return to her could not be easily accomplished : but she refused , saying that she would come with me to the coast of France : and I could not say her no . And at the coast , after thirteen days we arrived , three days before the New Year , traversing France by steam , air , and petrol traction . We came to Havre -- infirm , infirm of will that I was : for in my deep heart was the secret , hidden away from my own upper self , that , she being at Havre , and I at Portsmouth , we could still speak together . We came humming into the dark town of Havre in a four-seat motor-car about ten in the evening of the 29th December : a raw bleak night , she , it was clear , poor thing , bitterly cramped with cold . I had some recollection of the place , for I had been there , and drove to the quays , near which I stopped at the _ Maire 's _ large house , a palatial place overlooking the sea , in which she slept , I occupying another near . The next morning I was early astir , searched in the _ mairie _ for a map of the town , where I also found a _ Bottin _ : I could thus locate the Telephone Exchange . In the _ Maire 's _ house , which I had fixed upon to be her home , the telephone was set up in an alcove adjoining a very stately _ salon _ Louis Quinze ; and though I knew that these little dry batteries would not be run down in twenty odd years , yet , fearing any weakness , I broke open the box , and substituted a new one from the Company 's stores two streets away , at the same time noting the exchange-number of the instrument .