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Why, the potager of the Villa du Lac supplies the whole of Lacville with fruit and flowers! When I was a child I thought this part of the garden paradise, and I spent here my happiest hours." "It must be very odd for you to come back and stay in the Villa now that it is an hotel." "At first it seemed very strange," he answered gravely. "But now I have become quite used to the feeling."
She unpacked her trunks, and as she put her things away it suddenly struck her that she meant to stay at Lacville for some time. It was an interesting, a new, even a striking experience, this of hers; and though she felt rather lost without Anna Wolsky's constant presence and companionship, she was beginning to find it pleasant to be once more her own mistress.
But Sylvia knew nothing, nay, less than nothing, of all this, and even if she had known, it would not have stayed her steps to-day. She put on her hat and hurried down to the office. There M. Girard would doubtless tell her of a good train to Lacville, and if it were a small place she might easily run across Anna Wolsky.
Her husband strode forward in gloomy silence, probably thinking over the money he might have made or lost had he played that evening, instead of only noting down the turns of the game. Madame Wachner babbled on, making conversation for Chester. She was trying to find out something more about this quiet Englishman. Why had he come to Lacville? How long was he going to stay here?
Indeed, even as his wife spoke L'Ami Fritz made a note in the little book he held in his hand. When in the Baccarat Room he was absolutely absorbed in the play going on. Nothing could really distract him from it. Sylvia felt and looked relieved. "Oh, Bill," she exclaimed, "let me introduce you to Madame Wachner? She has been very kind to me since I came to Lacville."
"You see, Madame," he went on soberly, "you look very young I mean, pardon me, you are very young, and I will confess to you that the first time I saw you I thought you were a 'Miss. Of course, I saw at once that you were English." "An English girl would hardly have come all by herself to Lacville!" said Sylvia a little flippantly. "Oh, Madame, English young ladies do such strange things!"
Soon they were making their way along newly-made roads, cut through what had evidently been, not so very long before, a great stretch of forest land. "The good people of Lacville are in a hurry to make money," observed Madame Wachner in French. "I am told that land here has nearly trebled in value the last few years, though houses are still cheap."
Lacville is the spendthrift, the gambler the austere would call her the chartered libertine of the group of pretty country towns which encircle Paris; for Lacville is in the proud possession of a Gambling Concession which has gradually turned what was once the quietest of inland watering-places into a miniature Monte Carlo.
I know you do not approve of the play that goes on there, but still, believe me, it is the only thing to do at Lacville. Lacville would be a very dull place were it not for the Casino!" Chester smiled. "You think me far more particular than I am really," he said, lightly. "I don't in the least mind going to the Casino." Why should he be a spoil-sport?
As you say, the Comte de Virieu's room is now empty, but" he hesitated, and with a sly look added, "indeed we have another room empty to-night a far finer room, with a view over the lake the room Madame Bailey occupied." "The room Mrs. Bailey occupied?" echoed Chester. "Has Mrs. Bailey changed her room to-day?" "Oh, no, M'sieur! She left Lacville this very evening.
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