She lifted the corner of her apron to her eyes.
'It is nothing,' she muttered.
'Nothing at all.'
He hesitated, irresolute.
He could not leave her, could not just walk into his bedroom and shut the door, if she was in trouble.
She had been too helpful with the children.
'Is it Madame?' he said. 'Has she complained about your work?
If so, I will speak to her.
I will tell her how much you have helped me.'
She shook her head and wiped her eyes.
'It is not that, monsieur,' she said.
'But - I am dismissed.
I am to go tomorrow.'
He was amazed. 'But why?'
'Five years,' she said. 'Five years I have been with Madame - in all seasons of the year, monsieur - five years continuously!
And now, to be dismissed at the day!
It is intolerable, that.' She began to weep a little louder.
The old man said: 'But why has Madame done this?'
She said: 'Have you not heard?
The hotel is closing tomorrow.
It is to be an office for the railway.'
She raised her tear-stained face.
'All of us are dismissed, monsieur, everyone.
I do not know what will happen to me, and la petite Rose.'
He was dumbfounded, not knowing what to say to help the woman.
Obviously, if the hotel was to be an office for the railway staff, there would be no need for any chamber-maids; the whole hotel staff would have to go.
He hesitated, irresolute.
'You will be all right,' he said at last.
'It will be easy for so good a femme de chambre as you to get another job.'
She shook her head.
'It is not so.
All the hotels are closing, and what family can now afford a servant?
You are kind, monsieur, but it is not so.
I do not know how we shall live.'
'You have some relations, or family, that you can go to, no doubt?'
'There is nobody, monsieur.
Only my brother, father of little Rose, and he is in England.'
Howard remembered the wine waiter at the Dickens Hotel in Russell Square.
He said a word or two of meagre comfort and optimism to the woman; presently he escaped into the bedroom.
It was impossible for him to give her any help in her great trouble.
She had made him quite a comfortable bed on a mattress laid on the floor.
He went over to the children's bed and took a look at them; they were sleeping very deeply, though Sheila still seemed hot.
He sat for a little reading in the arm-chair, but he soon grew tired; he had not slept properly the night before and he had had an anxious and a worrying day.
Presently he undressed, and went to bed on the floor.
When he awoke the dawn was bright; from the window there came a great groaning clatter as a tank got under way and lumbered up the road.
The children were awake and playing in the bed; he lay for a little, simulating sleep, and then got up.
Sheila was cool, and apparently quite well.
He dressed himself and took her temperature.
It was very slightly above normal still; evidently, whatever it was that had upset her was passing off.
He washed them both and set Ronnie to dress himself, then went downstairs to order breakfast.