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Sylvia smiled, and gave way. Like most prosperous people who have not made the money they are able to spend, Mrs. Bailey did not attach any undue importance to wealth. But she knew that her friend was not as well off as herself, and therefore she was always trying to pay a little more of her share than was fair. Thanks to Madame Wolsky's stronger will, she very seldom succeeded in doing so.
The Club was very full, and it was a little difficult at that hour of the late afternoon to get near enough to a table to play comfortably; but a stranger had kindly kept Anna Wolsky's place for her. "I have been quite lucky," she whispered to Sylvia. "I have made three hundred francs, and now I think I will rest a bit! Slip in here, dear, and I will stand behind you.
As Sylvia drove away alone from the station, she felt exceedingly troubled and unhappy. It was all very well for Madame Wachner to take the matter of Anna Wolsky's disappearance from Lacville so philosophically. The Wachners' acquaintance with Madame Wolsky had been really very slight, and they naturally knew nothing of the Polish woman's inner nature and temperament.
Chester, that the Wachners are blackmailers. I am convinced that they discovered something to that poor lady's discredit, and after making her pay drove her away! Just before she left Lacville they were trying to raise money at the Casino money-changer's on some worthless shares. But after Madame Wolsky's disappearance they had plenty of gold and notes." Chester looked across at his companion.
And, to Sylvia's confusion and distress, they all then proceeded to the bed-room where she had last seen her friend, and there Monsieur Malfait broke the locks of Anna Wolsky's two large trunks. But the contents of Anna's trunks taught them nothing. They were only the kind of objects and clothes that a woman who travelled about the world a great deal would naturally take with her.
"We also will have a rest from the Casino." "Very well! I accept gratefully your kind invitation." "Come early. Come at six, and we can 'ave a cosy chat first." "Yes, I will!" After giving directions that they were to be told when the carriage had come back from the Châlet des Muguets, the two friends went up to Anna Wolsky's bed-room. Sylvia sat down by the open window.
He had put his right hand the hand holding the thing he had taken out of the drawer behind his back. He was very pale; the sweat had broken out on his sallow, thin face. For a horrible moment there floated across Sylvia's sub-conscious mind the thought of Anna Wolsky, and of what she now knew to have been Anna Wolsky's fate.
Nothing can stand against her. She sweeps the money up every time. If Fritz likes, he can go downstairs to the lower room and play." But before doing so L'Ami Fritz lingered awhile, watching Madame Wolsky's wonderful run of luck with an expression of painful envy and greed on his wolfish countenance. Sylvia went round to a point where she could watch Anna's face.
Monsieur and Madame Wachner often take their meals here. I will ask them if they have the letter." "Well, at any rate, we had better open Madame Wolsky's trunks; that may give us some clue," said the Commissioner in a weary voice.
"But I am an honest woman, and these people frighten me. Still, I am not one to want embarrassments with the police." And Sylvia suddenly remembered that those were exactly the words which had been uttered by Anna Wolsky's landlady in connection with Anna's disappearance. How frightened French people seemed to be of the police!
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