We were three hours away from Cannes, and we began to think that Herman Rogers and his wife, who were expecting us, might grow alarmed at this delay. We thought of telephoning them, but the road was deserted and the houses shut up. At last Perry ventured to knock at the door of a house; four men looked out asking what he wanted, and when they learned his request they hurled abuse at him, then told him that it was a very impudent way of going about things, since he could use the public telephone in the street. Whoever has once tried to stand in the street, under a downpour of rain and in the dark of night, to put through a call, can appreciate the trouble Perry endured that night. Then came the crowning misfortune: the lines were out of order, and most of the operators were asleep. But in the end he managed to speak to Rogers and informed him of the precautions he must take; he even sent policemen to keep the journalists away from around the villa.
It was half past eight on the morning of December 6 when we drove along the road leading to Cannes. The story of my arrival was written up, and the teller of it said that the moment our car reached the villa, I got out with lightning speed, then threw myself on the floor of the room with my head wrapped up in a rug... I did not deny the story, because it is true — except that I was covering my head and face with a piece of cloth, not a rug. Katherine Rogers came up, drew the covering away from my face, and overwhelmed me with warmth, and
for the first time on that journey I felt something like relief.
The press remained for several days encircling the villa, and the Rogers family lived under watch,
with questions raining down on them from every side; some of the reporters even tried to bribe the servants to ferret out some news. Even
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