Girard had noticed the British fondness for titles.
"You see, Madame, my cousin was chef to the Emperor of Brazil's
sister--this has given him a connection among the nobility. In the winter
he has an hotel at Mentone," he was looking up the train while he chatted
happily.
"There is a train every ten minutes," he said at last, "from the Gare du
Nord. Or, if Madame prefers it, she could walk up from here to the Square
of the Trinite and take the tramway; but it is quicker and pleasanter to
go by train--unless, indeed, Madame wishes to offer herself the luxury of
an automobile. That, alas! I fear would cost Madame twenty to thirty
francs."
"Of course I will go by train," said Sylvia, smiling, "and I will lunch
at your cousin's hotel, M. Girard."
It would be quite easy to find Anna, or so she thought, for Anna would be
at the Casino. Sylvia felt painfully interested in her friend's love of
gambling. It was so strange that Anna was not ashamed of it.
And then as she drove to the great railway terminus, from which a hundred
and twenty trains start daily for Lacville, it seemed to Sylvia that the
whole of Paris was placarded with the name of the place she was now about
to visit for the first time!
On every hoarding, on every bare piece of wall, were spread large,
flamboyant posters showing a garish but not unattractive landscape.
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