The Birth of Venus

The Birth of Venus
William Bouguereau Birth of Venus Painting
There seem a great many people out today," he observed, without looking round.
"Yes, sir, there do."
Mrs. Bunting began busying herself with laying the cloth and putting out the breakfast-lunch, and as she did so she was seized with a mortal, instinctive terror of the man sitting there.
At last Mr. Sleuth got up and turned round. She forced herself to look at him. How tired, how worn, he looked, and - how strange!
Walking towards the table on which lay his meal, he rubbed his hands together with a nervous gesture - it was a gesture he only made when something had pleased, nay, satisfied him. Mrs. Bunting, looking at him, remembered that he had rubbed his hands together thus when he had first seen the room upstairs, and realised that it contained a large gas-stove and a convenient sink.
What Mr. Sleuth was doing now also reminded her in an odd way of a play she had once seen