Scandal in a boarding house "properly" on the Riviera of the beginning of the century: Mrs. Henrietta, the wife of a client, eloped with a young man who nonetheless had been there that one day ... Only the narrator tries to understand this "creature without morals", with unexpected help from a very distinguished old English lady, who will explain what fires smoldering adventure revived at the fugitive. This tale of an overwhelming passion, short and sharp as the author was fond of Amok and chess player, is one of its undoubted successes.