noon
The hotel-keeper , a stout Alsatian , was a talkative person , and told Walter nearly all he wished to know . Since leaving Charing Cross five days before he had been ever active . On his arrival in Paris he had gone to the apartment of Colonel Maynard , the British military attaché , and spent the evening with him . Then , at one o'clock next morning , he had hurriedly taken his bag and left for Dijon , where at noon he had been met in the Café de la Rotonde by a little wizen-faced old Frenchwoman in seedy black , who had travelled for two days and nights in order to meet him . Together they had walked out on that unfrequented road beyond the Place Darcy , chatting confidentially as they went , the old lady speaking emphatically and with many gesticulations as they walked . Truth to tell , this insignificant-looking person was a woman of many secrets . She was a `` friend '' of the Sûreté Générale in Paris .