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There were mornings, too, when, after her tub, as early as nine, she galloped away on her cob to the Bois for her coffee and hot brioche at the Pré Catelan, a romantic little farm with a café and a stableful of mild-eyed cows that provide fresh milk to the weary at daylight, who are trying hard to turn over a new leaf before the next midnight.
Sabin, with a nod towards Felix, opened. It was from Helene. "15 Park Lane, London, "Thursday Morning. "My DEAR UNCLE, "I want you to come to luncheon to-day. The Princess de Catelan is here, and I am expecting also Mr. Brott, the Home Secretary our one great politician, you know. Many people say that he is the most interesting man in England, and must be our next Prime Minister.
For ten days I have haunted all the places where one goes, the Race Course, the Bois, the Armenonville and Pre Catelan, the Rue de la Paix, the theatres. I have seen them nearly every day. To-night they were at the Opera." "You know nothing of them beyond that?" Louis persisted. "Nothing whatever," I declared.
"Prince Shan was in Paris two years ago, incognito," she continued. "There was at the time a small but very fashionable restaurant in the Bois, close to the Pré Catelan. He presented himself one night there for dinner, accompanied, I believe, by La Belle Nita, the Chinese dancer who is in London to-day.
They took coffee together, and then entering a taxi drove out to the Bois, where at the Pré Catelan they were joined by a smartly dressed young woman who was, no doubt, an actress. The three sat talking for a quarter of an hour, after which the two men left her and returned to a small restaurant in the boulevard St. Martin, where they took their déjeuner.
"May the Lord deliver us from a Germanized Paris!" Kendricks prayed. "They may have the Ritz, if they will, and the Elysees Palace. They may have all the halls of fashion and gilt and wealth. They may swamp the Pre Catelan and the Armenonville, so long as they leave us the real Paris. Come, we take our coffee here. This is a German cafe, if you like.
At this early hour everything at the Pré Catelan was soft and soothing; later in the day things would alter, the service would be swift and unrestful, the swish of motor-cars and the hum of voices would break the spell, but at this hour of noon Paris, for some obscure reason, ignored the fruitful oasis of the Bois, and peace lay upon it like balm. "How charming! Oh, but how charming!"
Then something happened which even now sends a cold chill down my spine. Hardly had I raised my glass to my lips when there came a sharp, determined rap at the bolted door, and my host sprang to his feet. For a moment no one spoke I turned instinctively to look at my lady of the Pré Catelan.
But on reaching the Allee de Longchamp he found it guarded like the other roads, and therefore had to relinquish his plan of escaping by way of Madrid and the river-bank. While he was perforce making a bend alongside the Pre Catelan, he became aware that the keepers, led by detectives, were drawing yet nearer to him, confining his movements to a smaller and smaller area.
"Drive to the Pré Catelan and drive slowly!" he directed; he handed her to her seat with all the courtliness proper to the occasion, and they were off, wheeling up the long incline toward the Arc de Triomphe.
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