CHAPTER XXVIII
TO THE VILLA MIMOSA
With feet that seemed to touch nothing more substantial than air, hereyes brilliant, a wonderful colour in her cheeks, Violet passed throughthe heavy, dingy rooms and out through the motley crowd into the porticoof the Casino. She was right! She knew that she had been right! How wiseshe had been to borrow that money from Mr. Draconmeyer instead ofsitting down and confessing herself vanquished! The last few hours hadbeen hours of ecstatic happiness. With calm confidence she had sat inher place and watched her numbers coming up with marvellous persistence.It was the most wonderful thing in the world, this. She had had no timeto count her winnings, but at least she knew that she could pay backevery penny she owed. Her little gold satchel was stuffed with notes andplaques. She felt suddenly younger, curiously light-hearted; hungry,too, and thirsty. She was, in short, experiencing almost a delirium ofpleasure. And just then, on the steps of the Casino, she came face toface with her husband.
"Henry!" she called out. "Henry!"
He turned abruptly around. He was looking troubled, and in his hand werethe fragments of a crushed up note.
"Come across to the hotel with me," she begged, forgetful of everythingexcept her own immense relief. "Come and help me count. I have beenwinning. I have won back everything."
He accepted the information with only a polite show of interest. Afterall, as she reflected afterwards, he had no idea upon what scale she hadbeen gambling!
"I am delighted to hear it," he answered. "I'll see you across the road,if I may, but I have only a few minutes to spare. I have anappointment."
She was acutely disappointed; unreasonably, furiously angry.
"An appointment!" she exclaimed. "At half-past eleven o'clock at night!Are you waiting for Felicia Roche?"
"Is there any reason why I should not?" he asked her gravely.
She bit her lips hard. They were crossing the road now. After all, itwas only a few months since she had bidden him go his own way and leaveher to regulate her own friendships.
"No reason at all," she admitted, "only I cannot see why you choose toadvertise yourself with an opera singer--you, an ambitious politician,who moves with his head in the clouds, and to whom women are no morethan a pastime. Why have you waited all these years to commence aflirtation under my very nose!"
He looked at her sternly.
"I think that you are a little excited, Violet," he said. "You surelydon't realise what you are saying."
"Excited! Tell me once more--you got my note, the one I wrote thisevening?"
"Certainly."
His brief reply was convincing. She remembered the few impulsive lineswhich she had written from her heart in that moment of glad relief.There was no sign in his face that he had been touched. Even at thatmoment he had drawn out his watch and was looking at it.
"Thank you for bringing me here," she said, as they stood upon the stepsof the hotel. "Don't let me keep you."
"After all," he decided, "I think that I shall go up to my room for aminute. Good night!"
She looked after him, a little amazed. She was conscious of a feeling ofslow anger. His aloofness repelled her, was utterly inexplicable. Foronce it was she who was being badly treated. Her moment of exhilarationhad passed. She sat down in the lounge; her satchel, filled with millefranc notes, lay upon her lap unheeded. She sat there thinking, seeingnothing of the crowds of fashionably dressed women and men passing inand out of the hotel; of the gaily-lit square outside, the cool green ofthe gardens, the cafe opposite, the brilliantly-lit Casino. She was backagain for a moment in England. The strain of all this life, whipped intoan artificial froth of pleasure by the constant excitement of the oneaccepted vice of the world, had suddenly lost its hold upon her. Theinevitable question had presented itself. She was counting values andrealising....
When at last she rose wearily to her feet, Hunterleys was passingthrough the hall of the hotel, on his way out. She looked at him withaching heart but she made no effort to stop him. He had changed hisclothes for a dark suit and he was also wearing a long travelling coatand tweed cap. She watched him wistfully until he had disappeared. Thenshe turned away, summoned the lift and went up to her rooms. She rang atonce for her maid. She would take a bath, she decided, and go to bedearly. She would wash all the dust of these places away from her, abjureall manner of excitement and for once sleep peacefully. In the morningshe would see Henry once more. Deep in her heart there still lingeredsome faint shadow of doubt as to Draconmeyer and his attitude towardsher. It was scarcely possible that he could have interfered in any way,and yet.... She would talk to her husband face to face, she would tellhim the things that were in her heart.
She rang the bell for the second time. Only the _femme de chambre_answered the summons. Madame's maid was not to be found. Madame had notonce retired so early. It was possible that Susanne had gone out. Couldshe be of any service? Violet looked at her and hesitated. The woman wasclumsy-fingered and none too tidy. She shook her head and sent her away.For a moment she thought of undressing herself. Then instead she openedher satchel and counted the notes. Her breath came more quickly as shelooked at the shower of gold and counted the many oblong strips of paperwith their magic lettering. At last she had it all in heaps. There werethe twenty-five mille he had left with her, and the seventy-five milleshe had borrowed from him. Then towards her own losses there was anothermille, and a matter of five hundred francs in gold. And all thissuccess, her wonderful recovery, had been done so easily! It was justbecause she had had the pluck to go on, because she had followed hervein. She looked at the money and she walked to the window. Somewhere aband was playing in the distance. Little parties of men and women inevening dress were strolling by on their way to the Club. A woman waslaughing as she clung to her escort on the opposite side of the road, bythe gardens. Across at the Cafe de Paris the people were going in tosupper. The spirit of enjoyment seemed to be in the air--thelight-hearted, fascinating, devil-may-care atmosphere she knew so well.Violet looked back into the bedroom and she no longer had the impulse tosleep. Her face had hardened a little. Every one was so happy and shewas so lonely. She stuffed the notes and gold back into her bag, lookedat her hat in the glass and touched her face for a moment with apowder-puff. Then she left the room, rang for the lift and descended.
"I am going into the Club for an hour or so, if I am wanted," she toldthe concierge as she passed out.
* * * * *
Hunterleys, on leaving the hotel, walked rapidly across the square andfound David waiting for him on the opposite side.
"Felicia will be late," the latter explained. "She has to get all thatbeastly black stuff off her face. She is horribly nervous about Sidneyand she doesn't want you to wait. I think perhaps she is right, too. Shetold me to tell you that Monsieur Lafont himself came to her room andcongratulated her after the curtain had gone down. She is almosthysterical between happiness and anxiety about Sidney. Where's yourman?"
"I asked him to be a little higher up," Hunterleys replied. "There heis."
They walked a few steps up the hill and found Richard Lane waiting forthem in his car. The long, grey racer looked almost like some submarinemonster, with its flaring head-lights and torpedo-shaped body whichscarcely cleared the ground.
"Ready for orders, sir," the young man announced, touching his cap.
"Is there room for three of us, in case of an emergency?" Hunterleysasked.
"The third man has to sit on the floor," Richard pointed out, "but itisn't so comfortable as it looks."
Hunterleys clambered in and took the vacant place. David Bristonlingered by a little wistfully.
"I feel rather a skunk," he grumbled. "I don't see why I shouldn't comealong."
Hunterleys shook his head.
"There isn't the slightest need for it," he declared firmly. "You goback and look after Felicia. Tell her we'll get Sidney out of this allright. Get away with you, Lane, now."
"Where to?"
"To the Villa Mimosa!"
Richard whistled as he thrust in his clutch.
"So that's the game, is it?" he murmured, as they glided off.
Hunterleys leaned towards him.
"Lane," he said, "don't forget that I warned you there might be a littletrouble about to-night. If you feel the slightest hesitation aboutinvolving yourself--"
"Shut up!" Richard interrupted. "Whatever trouble you're ready to face,I'm all for it, too. Darned queer thing that we should be going to theVilla Mimosa, though! I am not exactly a popular person with Mr. Grex, Ithink."
Hunterleys smiled.
"I saw your sister this afternoon," he remarked. "You are rather awonderful young man."
"I knew it was all up with me," Richard replied simply, "when I firstsaw that girl. Now look here, Hunterleys, we are almost there. Tell meexactly what it is you want me to do?"
"I want you," Hunterleys explained, "to risk a smash, if you don't mind.I want you to run up to the boundaries of the villa gardens, head yourcar back for Monte Carlo, and while you are waiting there turn out allyour lights."
"That's easy enough," Richard assented. "I'll turn out the search-lightaltogether, and my others are electric, worked by a button. Is this anelopement act or what?"
"There's a meeting going on in that villa," Hunterleys told him,"between prominent politicians of three countries. You don't have tobother much about Secret Service over in the States, although there'smore goes on than you know of in that direction. But over here we haveto make regular use of Secret Service men--spies, if you like to callthem so. The meeting to-night is inimical to England. It is part of aconspiracy against which I am working. Sidney Roche--Felicia Roche'sbrother--who lives here as a newspaper correspondent, is in reality oneof our best Secret Service men. He is taking terrible chances to-nightto learn a little more about the plans which these fellows arediscussing. We are here in case he needs our help to get away. We'vecleared the shrubs away, close to the spot at which I am going to askyou to wait, and taken the spikes off the fence. It's just a thousand toone chance that if he's hard pressed for it and heads this way, they maythink that they have him in a trap and take it quietly. That is to say,they'll wait to capture him instead of shooting."
"Say, you don't mean this seriously?" Richard exclaimed. "They can't domore than arrest him as a trespasser, or something of that sort,surely?"
Hunterleys laughed grimly.
"These men wouldn't stick at much," he told his companion. "They're handin glove with the authorities here. Anything they did would be hushed upin the name of the law. These things are never allowed to come out. Itdoesn't do any one any good to have them gossiped about. If they caughtSidney and shot him, we should never make a protest. It's all part ofthe game, you know. Now that is the spot I want you to stop at, exactlywhere the mimosa tree leans over the path. But first of all, I'd turnout your head-light."
They slowed down and stopped. Richard extinguished the acetylenegas-lamp and mounted again to his place. Then he swung the car round andcrawled back upon the reverse until he reached the spot to whichHunterleys had pointed.
"You're a good fellow, Richard," Hunterleys said softly. "We may have towait an hour or two, and it may be that nothing will happen, but it'sgiving the fellow a chance, and it gives him confidence, too, to knowthat friends are at hand."
"I'm in the game for all it's worth, anyway," Lane declared heartily.
He touched a button and the lights faded away. The two men sat insilence, both turned a little in their seats towards the villa.