HIRE'S ENGAGEMENT (Les Fiançailles de Mr. Hire) was first published in France in 1933 and in Great Britain in 1956 Translated from the French by Daphne Woodward Contents I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI MR. HIRE'S ENGAGEMENT I THE concierge gave a slight cough before she knocked, and then announced, looking at the Belle Jardiniere catalogue in her hand: 'A letter for you, Mr. Hire.' And she gathered her shawl over her chest. Someone was moving on the other side of the brown door. Now to left, now to right, now footsteps, then a soft rustling of cloth or a rattle of crockery, and the grey eyes of the concierge seemed to be following the invisible trail of sound, through the partition. At last the sounds came closer. The key turned in the lock. A rectangle of light appeared, a strip of yellow-flowered wallpaper, the polished marble of a washbasin. A man held out his hand, but the concierge did not see him, or scarcely saw him, paid no attention to him, in any case, for her prying eyes were fixed on something else: a bloodstained towel, lying dark-red on the pale marble.
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