The Secret Adversary

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I wanted to be.

"The room was medium-sized, furnished in a kind of bare hygienic way.
There was a table with a lamp on it in the middle of the room, and
sitting at that table, facing towards me, was Whittington right enough.
He was talking to a woman dressed as a hospital nurse. She was sitting
with her back to me, so I couldn't see her face. Although the blinds
were up, the window itself was shut, so I couldn't catch a word of what
they said. Whittington seemed to be doing all the talking, and the nurse
just listened. Now and then she nodded, and sometimes she'd shake
her head, as though she were answering questions. He seemed very
emphatic--once or twice he beat with his fist on the table. The rain had
stopped now, and the sky was clearing in that sudden way it does.

"Presently, he seemed to get to the end of what he was saying. He got
up, and so did she. He looked towards the window and asked something--I
guess it was whether it was raining. Anyway, she came right across and