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.
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