I saw no reason to object. I was, in fact, exceedingly hungry. We lunched at a corner table in the famous restaurant, and I am bound to admit that we lunched exceedingly well. During the progress of the meal our conversation was absolutely general. All the events of the previous night were carefully ignored. When at last, however, we sat over our coffee and liqueurs, Monsieur Decresson, after a moment’s pause, turned his melancholy gray eyes on me.
“Capitaine Rotherby,” he said, “my friend and I represent a little group of people who have some interest in the place where we met last night. We are deputed to ask you to explain, if you can, your conduct,—your attack, which it seemed to us was absolutely unprovoked, upon an habitue of the place and an associate of our own.”
“There is only one explanation which I can make,” I answered slowly. “I went there, as Louis will tell you, absolutely a stranger, and absolutely by chance. Chance decreed that I should meet face to face the one man in the world against whom I bear a grudge, the one man whom I had sworn to punish whenever and wherever I might meet him.”
Monsieur Decresson bowed.
“There are situations,” he admitted, “which can only be dealt with in that manner. Do not think me personal or inquisitive, I beg of you, but—I ask in your own interests—what had you against this man Tapilow?”
“Monsieur Decresson,” I said, “I will answer you frankly. The man whom I punished last night, I punished because I have proved him to be guilty of conduct unbecoming to a gentleman. I punished him because he broke the one social law which in my country, at any rate, may not be transgressed with impunity.”
“What you are saying now,” Monsieur Grisson interrupted, “amounts to an accusation. Tapilow is known to us. These things must be spoken of seriously. You speak upon your honor as an English soldier and a gentleman?”
“Messieurs,” I answered, turning to both of them, “it is agreed. I speak to you as I would speak to the judge before whom I should stand if I had murdered this man, and I tell you both, upon my honor, that the treatment which he received from me he merited. He borrowed my money and my brother’s money. He accepted the hospitality of my brother’s house, the friendship of his friends. In return, he robbed him of the woman whom he loved.”
“The quarrel,” Monsieur Decresson said softly, “seems, then, to have been another’s.”
“Messieurs,” I answered, “my brother is an invalid for life. The quarrel, therefore, was mine.”
Decresson and his companion exchanged glances. I leaned back in my chair. The three of them talked together earnestly for several minutes in an undertone. Then Louis, with a little sigh of relief, rose to his feet and came over to my side.
“It is finished,” he declared. “Monsieur Decresson and Monsieur Grisson are of one mind in this matter. The man Tapilow’s punishment was deserved.”
I looked from one to the other of them in wonder.
“But I do not understand!” I exclaimed. “You mean to say, then, that even if Tapilow himself should wish it—”
Monsieur Decresson smiled grimly.
“What happens in the Café des Deux Epingles,” he said, “happens outside the world. Without special permission it would not be possible for Monsieur Tapilow to speak to the police of this assault. Buy your Figaro every evening,” he continued, “and soon you will read. In the meantime, I recommend you, monsieur, not to stay too long in Paris.”
They took leave of me with some solemnity on the pavement outside the restaurant, but Monsieur Decresson, before stepping into his automobile, drew me a little on one side.
“Capitaine Rotherby,” he said, “you have been dealt with to-day as a very privileged person. You were brought to the Café des Deux Epingles a stranger, almost a guest, and your behavior there might very well have been resented by us.”
“If I have not said much,” I answered, “please do not believe me any the less grateful.”
“Let that go,” Monsieur Decresson said coldly. “Only I would remind you of this. You are a young man, but your experience has doubtless told you that in this world one does not often go out of one’s way to serve a stranger for no purpose at all. There is a chance that the time may come when we shall ask you, perhaps through Louis here, perhaps through some other person, to repay in some measure your debt. If that time should come, I trust that you will not prove ungrateful.”
“I think,” I answered confidently, “that there is no fear of that.”
Monsieur Decresson touched Louis on the shoulder and motioned him to enter the automobile which was waiting. With many bows and solemn salutes the great car swung off and left me there alone. I watched it until it disappeared, and then, turning in the opposite direction, started to walk toward the Ritz. Curiously enough it never occurred to me to doubt for a moment the assurance which had been given me. I had no longer the slightest fear of arrest.
On the way I passed the Café de Paris. Then I suddenly remembered that strange little note from the girl with the turquoises. I never stopped to consider whether or not I was doing a wise thing. I opened the swing doors and passed into the restaurant. It was almost empty, except for a few people who had sat late over their luncheon. I called Leon to me.
“Leon,” I said, “you remember me? I am Captain Rotherby.”
He held up his hand.
“It is enough, monsieur,” he declared. “If monsieur would be so good.”
He drew me a little on one side.
“Mademoiselle still waits,” he said in an undertone. “If monsieur will ascend.”
“Upstairs?” I asked.
Leon bowed and smiled.
“Mademoiselle is in one of the smaller rooms,” he said. “Will monsieur follow me?”
“Why, certainly,” I answered.
VII. A DOUBLE ASSIGNATION
Table of Contents
I followed Leon upstairs to the region of smaller apartments. At the door of one of these he knocked, and a feminine voice at once bade us enter.
Mademoiselle was sitting upon a lounge, smoking a cigarette. On the table before her stood an empty coffee-cup and an empty liqueur-glass. She looked at me with a little grimace.
“At last!” she exclaimed.
“It is the gentleman whom mademoiselle was expecting?” Leon asked discreetly.
“Certainly,” she answered. “You may go, Leon.”
We were alone. She gave me her fingers, which I raised to my lips.
“Mademoiselle,” I said, “I owe you a thousand apologies. I can assure you, however, that I have come at the earliest possible moment.”
She motioned me to sit down upon the lounge by her side.
“Monsieur had a more interesting engagement, perhaps?” she murmured.
“Impossible!” I answered.
Now I had come here with no idea whatever of making love to this young lady. My chief interest in her was because she, too, was an habitue of this mysterious café; and because, from the first, I felt that she had some other than the obvious reason for sending me that little note. Nevertheless, it was for me to conceal these things, and I did not hesitate to take her hand in mine as we sat side by side. She did not draw it away, and she did not encourage me.
“Monsieur,” she said, “do not, I beg of you, be rash. It was foolish of me, perhaps, to meet you here. We can talk for a few minutes, and afterwards, perhaps, we may meet again, but I am frightened all the time.”
“Monsieur Bartot?” I asked.
She nodded.
“He is very, very jealous,” she answered.
“You go with him every night to the restaurant in the Place d’Anjou?” I asked.
“I go there very often,” she answered. “Monsieur, unless I am mistaken, is a stranger there.”
I nodded.
“Last night,” I told her, “I was there for the first time.”
“You came,” she said, toying with her empty liqueur-glass, “with Louis.”
“That is so,” I admitted.
“Louis brings no one there without a purpose,” she remarked.
“You know Louis, then?” I asked.
She raised her eyebrows.
“All the world knows Louis,” she continued. “A smoother-tongued rascal never breathed.”
“Louis,” I murmured, “would be flattered.”
“Louis knows himself,” she continued, “and he knows that others know him. When I saw monsieur with him I was sorry.”
“You are very kind,” I said, “to take so much interest.”
She looked at me, for the first time, with some spice of coquetry in her eyes.
“I think that I show my interest,” she murmured, “in meeting monsieur here. Tell me,” she continued, “why were you there with Louis?”
“A chance affair,” I answered. “I met him coming out of the Opera. I was bored, and we went together to the Montmartre. There I think that I was more bored still. It was Louis who proposed a visit to the Café des Deux Epingles.”
“Did you know,” she asked, “that you would meet that man—the man with whom you quarrelled?”
I shook my head.
“I had no idea of it,” I answered.
She leaned just a little towards me.
“Monsieur,” she said, “if you seek adventures over here, do not seek them with Louis. He knows no friends, he thinks of nothing but of himself. He is a very dangerous companion. There are others whom it would be better for monsieur to make companions of.”
“Mademoiselle,” I answered, looking into her eyes, “these things are not so interesting. You sent me last night a little note. When may I see you once more in that wonderful blue gown, and take you myself to the theatre, to supper,—where you will?”
She shot a glance at me from under her eyelids. The blind was not drawn, and the weak sunlight played upon her features. She was over-powdered and over-rouged, made up like all the smart women of her world, but her features were still good and her eyes delightful.
“Ah, monsieur,” she said, “but that would be doubly imprudent. It is not, surely, well for monsieur to be seen too much in Paris to-day? He was badly hurt, that poor Monsieur Tapilow.”
“Mademoiselle,” I assured her, “there are times when the risk counts for nothing.”
“Are all Englishmen so gallant?” she murmured.
“Mademoiselle,” I answered, “with the same inducement, yes!”
“Monsieur has learned how to flatter,” she remarked.
“It is an accomplishment which I never mastered,” I declared.
She sighed. All the time I knew quite well that she carried on this little war of words impatiently. There were other things of which she desired to speak.
“Tell me, monsieur,” she said, “what had he done to you, this man Tapilow?”
I shook my head.
“You must forgive me,” I said. “That is between him and me.”
“And Monsieur Louis,” she murmured.
“Louis knew nothing about it,” I declared.
She seemed perplexed. She had evidently made up her mind that Louis had taken me there with the object of meeting Tapilow, and for some reason the truth was interesting to her.
“It was a quarrel about a woman, of course,” she murmured,—“the friend of monsieur, or perhaps a relation. I am jealous! Tell me, then, that it was a relation.”
“Mademoiselle,” I answered gravely, “I cannot discuss with you the cause of the quarrel between that man and myself. Forgive me if I remind you that it is a very painful subject. Forgive me if I remind you, too,” I added, taking her other hand in mine for a moment, “that when I saw you scribble those few lines and send them across to me, and when I read what you said and came here, it was not to answer questions about any other person.”
She raised her eyes to mine. They were curiously and wonderfully blue. Then she shook her head and withdrew her hands, sighing.
“But, monsieur,” she said, “since then many things have happened. You must not show yourself about in Paris. It is better for you to go back to England.”
“I am quite safe here,” I declared.
“Then it has been arranged!” she exclaimed quickly. “Louis is, after all, monsieur’s friend. He has perhaps seen—”
“We will not talk of these things,” I begged. “I would rather—”
She started, and drew a little away, glancing nervously toward the door.
“I am terrified,” she said. “Monsieur must come to my apartments one afternoon, where we can talk without fear. There is one more question, though,” she continued rapidly. “Louis looked often at us. Tell me, did he say anything to you about Monsieur Bartot and myself?”
“Nothing,” I answered, “except that Monsieur Bartot held a somewhat unique position in a certain corner of Paris, and that he was a person whom it was not well to offend.”
“No more?” she asked.
“No more,” I answered.
“I saw him point us out to you,” she remarked.
“I asked him to show me the most beautiful woman in the room,” I answered.
She shook her head.
“You are too much of a courtier for an Englishman,” she said. “You do not mean what you say.”
“Even an Englishman,” I answered, “can find words when he is sufficiently moved.”
I made a feint again to hold her hands, but she drew away.
“When are you going back to England?” she asked abruptly.
“To-morrow, I think,” I answered, “if I am still free.”
“Free!” she repeated scornfully. “If you are protected, who is there who will dare to touch you? Monsieur Decresson has all the police dancing to his bidding, and if that were not sufficient, Monsieur Bartot could rescue you even from prison. No, you are safe enough, monsieur, even if you remain here! It is Louis, eh, who is anxious for you to return to England?”
“My time was nearly up anyhow,” I told her. “It is not until this moment that I have felt inclined to stay.”
“Nevertheless,” she murmured, “Monsieur goes to London to-morrow. Is it permitted to ask—”
“Anything,” I murmured.
“If monsieur goes alone?”
“I fear so,” I answered, “unless mademoiselle—”
She laid her fingers upon my lips.
“Monsieur does not know the elderly gentleman and the very beautiful girl who sat opposite him last night?” she asked,—“Monsieur Delora and his niece?”
Somehow I felt convinced, the moment that the question had left her lips, that her whole interest in me was centred upon my reply. She concealed her impatience very well, but I realized that, for some reason or other, I was sitting there by her side solely that I might answer that question.
“I heard their names last night for the first time,” I declared. “It was Louis who told me about them.”
She looked at me for several moments as though anxious to be sure that I had spoken the truth.
“Mademoiselle!” I said reproachfully. “Let us leave these topics. I am not interested in the Deloras, or Louis, or Monsieur Bartot. Last night is finished, and to-morrow I leave. Let us talk for a few moments of ourselves.”
She held up her finger suddenly.
“Listen!” she exclaimed, in a voice of terror.
Footsteps had halted outside the door. She ran to the window and looked down. In the street below was standing an automobile with yellow wheels. I was looking over her shoulder, and she clutched my arm.
“It is he—Bartot!” she cried. “He is here at the private entrance. Some one has told him that I am here. Mon Dieu! It is he outside now!”
It was bad acting, and I laughed.
“Mademoiselle,” I said, “if Monsieur Bartot is your lover, be thankful that you have nothing with which to reproach yourself.”
I rang the bell. She looked at me for a moment with eyes filled with a genuine fear. Obviously she did not understand my attitude. From my trousers pocket I drew a
little revolver, whose settings and mechanism I carefully examined. There was a loud knock at the door and the sound of voices outside. Monsieur Bartot entered, in a frock-coat too small for him and a tie too large. When he saw us he fell back with a theatrical start.
“Susette!” he exclaimed. “Susette! And you, sir!” he added, turning to me.
He slammed the door and stood with his back to it.
“What the devil is the meaning of this?” he asked, looking from one to the other of us.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“You had better ask mademoiselle,” I answered.
“She is, I believe, an acquaintance of yours. As for me—”
“My name is Bartot, sir,” he cried fiercely.
“An excellent name,” I answered, “but unknown to me. I do not yet understand by what right you intrude into a private room here.”
He laughed hardly.
“‘Intrude’!” he cried. “One does not call it that. ‘Intrude,’ when I find you two together, eh?”
I turned to the girl, who, with her handkerchief dabbed to her eyes, was still affecting a perfect frenzy of fear.
“Has this person any claims upon you?” I asked. “He seems to me to be an exceedingly disagreeable fellow.”
Bartot’s face grew purple. His cheeks seemed to distend and his eyes grow smaller. It was no longer necessary for him to play a part. He was becoming angry indeed.
“Monsieur,” he said, “I remember you now. It was you who tried to flirt with this lady last night in the Café des Deux Epingles. You have not even the excuse of ignorance. All the world knows that I have claims upon this lady.”
I bowed.
“Claims,” I answered, “which I can assure you I am not in a position to dispute.”
“How is it, then,” he asked fiercely, “that I find you two, strangers last night, together to-day here?”
I altered one of the cartridges in my revolver and let it go with a snap. Bartot took a quick step backwards.
“It is a long story,” I said softly, “and I doubt whether it would interest you, Monsieur Bartot. Still, if you are really curious, mademoiselle will satisfy you later.”
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