Marie Belloc Lowndes - The Chink in the Armour
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Marie Belloc Lowndes >> The Chink in the Armour
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In her careful, rather precise French, she told the servant she would
come in and wait.
"I am sure that Madame Wachner would wish me to do so," she said,
smiling; and after a rather ungracious pause the woman admitted her into
the house, leading the way into the darkened dining-room.
"Do you think it will be long before Madame Wachner comes back?" asked
Sylvia.
The woman hesitated--"I cannot tell you that," she mumbled. "They never
say when they are going, or when they will be back. They are very odd
people!"
She bustled out of the room for a few moments and then came back, holding
a big cotton parasol in her hand.
"I do not know if Madame wishes to stay on here by herself? As for me,
I must go now, for my work is done. Perhaps when Madame leaves the house
she will put the key under the mat."
"Yes, if I leave the house before my friends return home I will certainly
do so. But I expect Madame Wachner will be here before long."
Sylvia spoke shortly. She did not like the day-servant's independent,
almost rude way of speaking.
"Should the master and mistress come back before Madame has left, will
Madame kindly explain that she _insisted_ on coming into the house? I am
absolutely forbidden to admit visitors unless Madame Wachner is here to
entertain them."
The woman spoke quickly, her eyes fixed expectantly on the lady sitting
before her.
Mrs. Bailey suddenly realised, or thought she realised, what that look
meant. She took her purse out of her pocket and held out a two-franc
piece.
"Certainly," she answered coldly, "I will explain to Madame Wachner that
I insisted on coming in to rest."
The woman's manner altered; it became at once familiar and servile. After
profusely thanking Sylvia for her "tip," she laid the cotton parasol on
the dining-table, put her arms akimbo, and suddenly asked, "Has Madame
heard any news of her friend? I mean of the Polish lady?"
"No," Sylvia looked up surprised. "I'm sorry to say that there is still
no news of her, but, of course, there will be soon."
She was astonished that the Wachners should have mentioned the matter to
this disagreeable, inquisitive person.
"The lady stopped here on her way to the station. She seemed in very high
spirits."
"Oh, no, you are quite mistaken," said Sylvia quickly. "Madame Wolsky did
not come here at all the day she left Lacville. She was expected, both to
tea and to supper, but she did not arrive--"
"Indeed, yes, Madame! I had to come back that afternoon, for I had
forgotten to bring in some sugar. The lady was here then, and she was
still here when I left the house."
"I assure you that this cannot have been on the day my friend left
Lacville," said Mrs. Bailey quickly. "Madame Wolsky left on a Saturday
afternoon. As I told you just now, Madame Wachner expected her to supper,
but she never came. She went to Paris instead."
The servant looked at her fixedly, and Sylvia's face became what it
seldom was--very forbidding in expression. She wished this meddling,
familiar woman would go away and leave her alone.
"No doubt Madame knows best! One day is like another to me. I beg
Madame's pardon."
The Frenchwoman took up her parasol and laid the house key on the table,
then, with a "_Bon jour, Madame, et encore merci bien!_" she noisily
closed the door behind her.
A moment later, Sylvia, with a sense of relief, found herself in sole
possession of the Chalet des Muguets.
* * * * *
Even the quietest, the most commonplace house has, as it were, an
individuality that sets it apart from other houses. And even those who
would deny that proposition must admit that every inhabited dwelling has
its own special nationality.
The Chalet des Muguets was typically French and typically suburban; but
where it differed from thousands of houses of the same type, dotted round
in the countrysides within easy reach of Paris, was that it was let each
year to a different set of tenants.
In Sylvia Bailey's eyes the queer little place lacked all the elements
which go to make a home; and, sitting there, in that airless, darkened
dining-room, she wondered, not for the first time, why the Wachners chose
to live in such a comfortless way.
She glanced round her with distaste. Everything was not only cheap, but
common and tawdry. Still, the dining-room, like all the other rooms in
the chalet, was singularly clean, and almost oppressively neat.
There was the round table at which she and Anna Wolsky had been so kindly
entertained, the ugly buffet or sideboard, and in place of the dull
parquet floor she remembered on her first visit lay an ugly piece of
linoleum, of which the pattern printed on the surface simulated a red
and blue marble pavement.
Once more the change puzzled her, perhaps unreasonably.
At last Sylvia got up from the hard cane chair on which she had been
sitting.
There had come over her, in the half-darkness, a very peculiar
sensation--an odd feeling that there was something alive in the room. She
looked down, half expecting to see some small animal crouching under the
table, or hiding by the walnut-wood buffet behind her.
But, no; nothing but the round table, and the six chairs stiffly placed
against the wall, met her eyes. And yet, still that feeling that there
was in the room some sentient creature besides herself persisted.
She opened the door giving into the hall, and walked through the short
passage which divided the house into two portions, into the tiny "salon."
Here also the closed shutters gave the room a curious, eerie look
of desolate greyness. But Sylvia's eyes, already accustomed to the
half-darkness next door, saw everything perfectly.
The little sitting-room looked mean and shabby. There was not a flower,
not even a book or a paper, to relieve its prim ugliness. The only
ornaments were a gilt clock on the mantelpiece, flanked with two sham
Empire candelabra. The shutters were fastened closely, and the room was
dreadfully hot and airless.
Once more Sylvia wondered why the Wachners preferred to live in this
cheerless way, with a servant who only came for a few hours each day,
rather than at an hotel or boarding-house.
And then she reminded herself that, after all, the silent, gaunt man, and
his talkative, voluble wife, seemed to be on exceptionally good terms the
one with the other. Perhaps they really preferred being alone together
than in a more peopled atmosphere.
While moving aimlessly about the room, Sylvia began to feel unaccountably
nervous and oppressed. She longed to be away from this still, empty
house, and yet it seemed absurd to leave just as the Wachners would be
returning home.
After a few more minutes, however, the quietude, and the having
absolutely nothing to do with which to wile away the time, affected
Sylvia's nerves.
It was, after all, quite possible that the Wachners intended to wait in
Paris till the heat of the day was over. In that case they would not be
back till seven o'clock.
The best thing she could do would be to leave a note inviting Madame
Wachner and L'Ami Fritz to dinner at the Villa du Lac. Count Paul was to
be in Paris this evening, so his eyes would not be offended by the sight
of the people of whom he so disapproved. Madame Wachner would probably be
glad to dine out, the more so that no proper meal seemed to have been
prepared by that unpleasant day-servant. Why, the woman had not even laid
the cloth for her employers' supper!
Sylvia looked instinctively round for paper and envelopes, but there
was no writing-table, not even a pencil and paper, in the little
drawing-room. How absurd and annoying!
But, stay--somewhere in the house there must be writing materials.
Treading softly, and yet hearing her footsteps echoing with unpleasant
loudness through the empty house, Sylvia Bailey walked past the open door
of the little kitchen, and so to the end of the passage.
Then something extraordinary happened.
While in the act of opening the door of Madame Wachner's bed-room, the
young Englishwoman stopped and caught her breath. Again she had suddenly
experienced that unpleasant, eerie sensation--the sensation that _she was
not alone_. But this time the feeling was far more vivid than it had been
in the dining-room.
So strong, so definite was Sylvia's perception of another presence, and
this time of a human presence, in the still house, that she turned
sharply round--
But all she saw was the empty passage, cut by a shaft of light thrown
from the open door of the kitchen, stretching its short length down to
the entrance hall.
Making a determined effort over what she could but suppose to be her
nerves, she walked through into the Wachners' bed-room.
It was very bare and singularly poorly furnished, at least to English
eyes, but it was pleasantly cool after the drawing-room.
She walked across to the window, and, drawing aside the muslin curtains,
looked out.
Beyond the patch of shade thrown by the house the sun beat down on
a ragged, unkempt lawn, but across the lawn she noticed, much more
particularly than she had done on the two former occasions when she had
been in the house, that there lay a thick grove of chestnut trees just
beyond the grounds of the Chalet des Muguets.
A hedge separated the lawn from the wood, but like everything else in the
little property it had been neglected, and there were large gaps in it.
She turned away from the window--
Yes, there, at last, was what she had come into this room to seek!
Close to the broad, low bed was a writing-table, or, rather, a deal
table, covered with a turkey red cloth, on which lay a large sheet of
ink-stained, white blotting-paper.
Flanking the blotting-paper was a pile of Monsieur Wachner's little red
books--the books in which he so carefully noted the turns of the game at
the Casino, and which served him as the basis of his elaborate gambling
"systems."
Sylvia went up to the writing-table, and, bending over it, began looking
for some notepaper. But there was nothing of the sort to be seen;
neither paper nor envelopes lay on the table.
This was the more absurd, as there were several pens, and an inkpot
filled to the brim.
She told herself that the only thing to do was to tear a blank leaf out
of one of L'Ami Fritz's note-books, and on it write her message of
invitation. If she left the little sheet of paper propped up on the
dining-table, the Wachners would be sure to see it.
She took up the newest-looking of the red note-books, and as she opened
it she suddenly felt, and for the third time, that there was a living
presence close to her--and this time that it was that of Anna Wolsky!
It was an extraordinary sensation--vivid, uncanny, terrifying--the more
so that Sylvia Bailey not only believed herself to be alone in the house,
but supposed Anna to be far from Lacville....
Fortunately, this unnerving and terrifying impression of an unseen and
yet real presence did not endure; and, as she focussed her eyes on the
open book she held in her hand, it became fainter and fainter, while she
realised, with a keen sense of relief, what it was that had brought the
presence of her absent friend so very near to her.
There, actually lying open before her, between two leaves of the little
note-book, was a letter signed by Anna Wolsky! It was a short note, in
French, apparently an answer to one Madame Wachner had sent reminding
her of her engagement. It was odd that the Wachners had said nothing of
this note, for it made Anna's conduct seem stranger than ever.
Opposite the page on which lay the little letter, Monsieur Wachner had
amused himself by trying to imitate Anna's angular handwriting.
Sylvia tore out one of the blank pages, and then she put the note-book
and its enclosure back on the table. She felt vaguely touched by the fact
that the Wachners had kept her friend's last letter; they alone, so she
reminded herself, had been really sorry and concerned at Anna's sudden
departure from the place. They also, like Sylvia herself, had been pained
that Madame Wolsky had not cared to say good-bye to them.
She scribbled a few lines on the scrap of paper, and then, quickly making
her way to the dining-room, she placed her unconventional invitation on
the round table, and went out into the hall.
As she opened the front door of the Chalet des Muguets Sylvia was met
by a blast of hot air. She looked out dubiously. She was thoroughly
unnerved--as she expressed it to herself, "upset." Feeling as she now
felt, walking back through the heat would be intolerable.
For the first time Lacville became utterly distasteful to Sylvia Bailey.
She asked herself, with a kind of surprise, of self-rebuke, why she was
there--away from her own country and her own people? With a choking
sensation in her throat she told herself that it would be very
comfortable to see once more the tall, broad figure of Bill Chester,
and to hear his good, gruff English voice again.
She stepped out of the house, and put up her white parasol.
It was still dreadfully hot, but to the left, across the lawn, lay the
cool depths of the chestnut wood. Why not go over there and rest in the
shade?
Hurrying across the scorched grass to the place where there was an
opening in the rough hedge, she found herself, a moment later, plunged
in the grateful green twilight created by high trees.
It was delightfully quiet and still in the wood, and Sylvia wondered
vaguely why the Wachners never took their tea out there. But foreigners
are very law-abiding, or so she supposed, and the wood, if a piece of
no-man's land, was for sale. Up a path she could see the back of a large
board.
It was clear that this pretty bit of woodland would have been turned into
villa plots long ago had it been nearer to a road. But it was still a
stretch of primeval forest. Here and there, amid the tufts of grass, lay
the husks of last autumn's chestnuts.
Sylvia slowly followed the little zigzag way which cut across the wood,
and then, desiring to sit down for awhile, she struck off to the right,
towards a spot where she saw that the brambles and the undergrowth had
been cleared away.
Even here, where in summer the sun never penetrated, the tufts of coarse
grass were dried up by the heat. She glanced down; no, there was no fear
that the hard, dry ground would stain her pretty cotton frock.
And then, as she sat there, Sylvia gradually became aware that close to
her, where the undergrowth began again, the earth had recently been
disturbed. Over an irregular patch of about a yard square the sods had
been dug up, and then planted again.
The thought passed through her mind that children must have been playing
there, and that they had made a rude attempt to destroy their handiwork,
or rather to prevent its being noticed, by placing the branch of a tree
across the little plot of ground where the earth had been disturbed. It
was this broken branch, of which the leaves had shrivelled up, that had
first drawn her attention to the fact that someone must have been there,
and recently.
Her thoughts wandered off to Bill Chester. He was now actually journeying
towards her as fast as boat and train could bring him; in a couple of
hours he would be in Paris, and then, perhaps, he would come out to
Lacville in time for dinner.
Sylvia had not been able to get a room for him in the Villa du Lac, but
she had engaged one in the Pension Malfait--where she had been able to
secure the apartment which had been occupied by Anna Wolsky, whose things
had only just been moved out of it.
She could not help being sorry that Bill would see Lacville for the first
time on a Sunday. She feared that, to his English eyes, the place,
especially on that day, would present a peculiarly--well, disreputable
appearance!
Sylvia felt jealous for the good fame of Lacville. Out in the open air
her spirits had recovered their balance; she told herself that she had
been very happy here--singularly, extraordinarily happy....
Of course it was a pity when people lost more money than they could
afford at the Casino; but even in England people betted--the poor, so
she had been told, risked all their spare pence on horse racing, and the
others, those who could afford it, went to Monte Carlo, or stayed at home
and played bridge!
After all, where was the difference? But, of course, Bill Chester, with
his tiresome, old-fashioned views of life, would think there was a great
difference; he would certainly disapprove of the way she was now spending
her money....
Something told her, and the thought was not wholly unpleasing to her,
that Bill Chester and the Comte de Virieu would not get on well together.
She wondered if Count Paul had ever been jealous--if he were capable of
jealousy? It would be rather interesting to see if anything or anyone
could make him so!
And then her mind travelled on, far, far away, to a picture with which
she had been familiar from her girlhood, for it hung in the drawing-room
of one of her father's friends at Market Dalling. It was called "The
Gambler's Wife." She had always thought it a very pretty and pathetic
picture; but she no longer thought it so; in fact, it now appeared to her
to be a ridiculous travesty of life. Gamblers were just like other
people, neither better nor worse--and often infinitely more lovable
than were some other people....
At last Sylvia got up, and slowly made her way out of the wood. She did
not go back through the Wachners' garden; instead, she struck off to the
left, on to a field path, which finally brought her to the main road.
As she was passing the Pension Malfait the landlady came out to the gate.
"Madame!" she cried out loudly, "I have had news of Madame Wolsky at
last! Early this afternoon I had a telegram from her asking me to send
her luggage to the cloak-room of the Gare du Nord."
Sylvia felt very glad--glad, and yet once more, perhaps unreasonably,
hurt. Then Anna had been in Paris all the time? How odd, how really
unkind of her not to have written and relieved the anxiety which she must
have known her English friend would be feeling about her!
"I have had Madame Wolsky's room beautifully prepared for the English
gentleman," went on Madame Malfait amiably. She was pleased that Mrs.
Bailey was giving her a new guest, and it also amused her to observe
what prudes Englishwomen could be.
Fancy putting a man who had come all the way from England to see one, in
a pension situated at the other end of the town to where one was living
oneself!
CHAPTER XIX
William Chester, solicitor, and respected citizen of Market Dalling, felt
rather taken aback and bewildered as he joined the great stream of people
who were pouring out of the large suburban station of Lacville.
He had only arrived in Paris two hours before, and after a hasty dinner
at the Gare du Nord he had made inquiries as to his best way of reaching
Lacville. And then he was told, to his surprise, that from the very
station in which he found himself trains started every few minutes to
the spot for which he was bound.
"To-night," added the man of whom he had inquired, "there is a fine fete
at Lacville, including fireworks on the lake!"
Chester had imagined Sylvia to be staying in a quiet village or little
country town. That was the impression her brief letters to him had
conveyed, and he was astonished to hear that Lacville maintained so large
and constant a train service.
Sylvia had written that she would engage a room for him at the
boarding-house where she was staying; and Chester, who was very tired
after his long, hot journey, looked forward to a pleasant little chat
with her, followed by a good night's rest.
It was nine o'clock when he got into the Lacville train, and again he
was vaguely surprised to see what a large number of people were bound for
the place. It was clear that something special must be going on there
to-night, and that "the fireworks on the lake" must be on a very splendid
scale.
When he arrived at Lacville, he joined the great throng of people, who
were laughing and talking, each and all in holiday mood, and hailed an
open carriage outside the station. "To the Villa du Lac!" he cried.
The cab could only move slowly through the crowd of walkers, and when
it finally emerged out of the narrow streets of the town it stopped a
moment, as if the driver wished his English fare to gaze at the beautiful
panorama spread out before his eyes.
Dotted over the lake, large and mysterious in the starlit night, floated
innumerable tiny crafts, each gaily hung with a string of coloured
lanterns. Now and again a red and blue rocket streamed up with a hiss,
dissolving in a shower of stars reflected in the still water.
Down to the right a huge building, with towers and minarets flung up
against the sky, was outlined in twinkling lights.
The cab moved on, only for a few yards however, and then drove quickly
through high gates, and stopped with a jerk in front of a stone
staircase.
"It cannot be here," said Chester incredulously to himself. "This looks
more like a fine private house than a small country hotel."
"Villa du Lac?" he asked interrogatively, and the cabman said, "_Oui,
M'sieur_."
The Englishman got out of the cab, and ascending the stone steps, rang
the bell. The door opened, and a neat young woman stood before him.
"I am come to see Mrs. Bailey," he said in his slow, hesitating French.
There came a torrent of words, of smiles and nods--it seemed to Chester
of excuses--in which "Madame Bailey" frequently occurred.
He shook his head, helplessly.
"I will call my uncle!"
The maid turned away; and Chester, with an agreeable feeling of relief
that at last his journey was ended, took his bag off the cab, and
dismissed the man.
What a delightful, spacious house! Sylvia had not been so very foolish
after all.
M. Polperro came forward, bowing and smiling.
"M'sieur is the gentleman Madame Bailey has been expecting?" he said,
rubbing his hands. "Oh, how sad she will be that she has already gone to
the Casino! But Madame did wait for M'sieur till half-past nine; then
she concluded that he must mean to spend the night in Paris."
"Do you mean that Mrs. Bailey has gone out?" asked Chester, surprised and
disappointed.
"Yes, M'sieur. Madame has gone out, as she always does in the evening,
to the Casino. It is, as M'sieur doubtless knows, the great attraction
of our delightful and salubrious Lacville."
Chester had not much sense of humour, but he could not help smiling to
himself at the other's pompous words.
"Perhaps you will kindly show me to the room which Mrs. Bailey has
engaged for me," he said, "and then I will go out and try and find her."
M. Polperro burst into a torrent of agitated apologies. There was alas!
no room for Madame Bailey's friend--in fact the Villa du Lac was so
extraordinarily prosperous that there never was a room there from May
till October, unless one of the guests left unexpectedly!
But Mr. Chester--was not that his name?--must not be cast down, for Mrs.
Bailey had secured a beautiful room for him in another pension, a very
inferior pension to the Villa du Lac, but still one in which he would be
comfortable.
Chester now felt annoyed, and showed it. The thought of turning out again
was not a pleasant one.
But what was this funny little Frenchman saying?
"Oh, if M'sieur had only arrived an hour ago! Madame Bailey was so
terribly disappointed not to see M'sieur at dinner! A very nice special
dinner was prepared, cooked by myself, in honour of Madame Bailey's
little party."
And he went on to tell Chester, who was getting bewildered with the
quick, eager talk, that this special dinner had been served at eight
o'clock, and that Madame Bailey had entertained two friends that evening.
"You say that Mrs. Bailey is at the Casino?"
"_Mais oui, M'sieur!_"
It had never occurred to Chester that there would be a Casino in the
place where Sylvia was spending the summer. But then everything at
Lacville, including the Villa du Lac, was utterly unlike what the English
lawyer had expected it to be.
M. Polperro spread out his hands with an eloquent gesture. "I beg of
M'sieur," he said, "to allow me to conduct him to the Casino! Madame
Bailey will not be here for some time, not perhaps for one hour, perhaps
for two hours. I will have the luggage sent on to the Pension Malfait."
Strange--very strange! At home in Market Dalling Sylvia had always been
fond of going to bed quite early; yet now, according to the hotel-keeper,
she was perhaps going to stay out till one o'clock--till one o'clock on
Sunday morning!
M. Polperro led Chester into the stately, long drawing-room; but in a
very few moments he reappeared, having taken off his white apron and his
chef's cap, and put on a light grey alpaca coat and a soft hat.
As they hurried along the path which skirts the lake, Chester began to
feel the charm of the place. It was very gay and delightful--"very
French," so the English lawyer told himself. The lake, too, looked
beautiful--mysteriously beautiful and fairy-like, in the moonlight.
Soon they turned into a narrow dark lane.
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