'Well, sir,' he said, 'I guess it's going to be lonesome without you. Yessir, it'll be lonesome all right. But I'll make out some-how,' he added bravely, for the Glendale Gedges have the right stuff in them.
You won't be lonesome. Didn't I tell you?'
'Tell me what?'
'I have invited some people to stay at the Château. They will be arriving the day after to-morrow.'
Something of Mr Gedge's quiet happiness left him. He was not one of those men who enjoy playing the host. A lot of nosy visitors about the place, moreover, might hamper his movements.
'Quite a small party. Senator Opal and his daughter....'
'Old Opal!'
'... and the Vicomte de Blissac'
'What!'
'I have never met him, but I believe he is a very charming young man.'
Mr Gedge corrected this view.
'A very charming young wild Indian. Never sober, they tell me.'
'I know all about that, and I have given orders that no alcohol is to be served in the Château during his visit. His mother's main reason for sending him to us is that she wants him to have a few weeks of complete abstinence.'
'Say, what is this joint? A Keeley Cure Institute?'
'I am very glad the Vicomte is able to come. There are several things about this house that I wish to discuss with a representative of the family. The Vicomtesse gave me to understand that the plumbing was in good repair. It isn't. It's terrible. And there's that leaky cistern upstairs.'
'So when he arrives,' said Mr Gedge morosely, 'I suppose I meet him on the doorstep and say, "Come right on in, Vicomte. We can't offer you a drink, but step up and take a look at our leaky cistern." That'll make a big hit with him.'
He rumbled wordlessly for a while. Then a sudden and unpleasant idea seemed to strike him.
'What is all this?' he asked suspiciously. 'What's the big idea back of it all? Filling up the place with Vicomtes and Senators – there's something behind it that I don't get. Why the Vicomte? How come the Senator?'
Mrs Gedge was silent for a moment. Into her manner there had crept a sort of strained alertness, like that of a leopard crouching for the spring.
'It is all quite simple,' she said. 'The Vicomte's mother has great influence with the French Government.'
'What of it?'
'Any friend of hers would be welcomed by them.'
Mr Gedge, who had no intention of spending a week-end with the French Government, said so.
'And Senator Opal is so powerful in Washington that he can practically dictate appointments.'
'What appointments?'
'Well, for instance, the appointment of American Ambassador to France.'
'Who's going to be Ambassador to France?' said Mr Gedge, mystified.
He could not have asked a more convenient question. It enabled Mrs Gedge to place the salient facts before him crisply and without further preamble.
'You are,' she said.
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P. G. Wodehouse, Big Money
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