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'I have only been able to teach her very little, said Madame, looking affectionately at Miss Marchurst, who now stood by the table, blushing at Vandeloup's praises, 'but when we find the Devil's Lead I am going to send her home to Italy to study singing. 'For the stage? asked Vandeloup. 'That is as it may be, replied Madame, enigmatically, 'but now, M. Vandeloup, you must sing us something.
M. Vandeloup's rooms in Clarendon Street, East Melbourne, were very luxuriously and artistically furnished, in perfect accordance with the taste of their owner, but as the satiated despot is depicted by the moralists as miserable amid all his splendour, so M. Gaston Vandeloup, though not exactly miserable, was very ill at ease.
'Yes, do come, urged Bellthorp, putting his arm in that of Vandeloup's; 'we'll have no end of fun. Vandeloup was just going to accept, as he thought on the way he could speak privately to Barty about this scheme he had, when he saw a stout gentleman at the end of the room taking a cup of coffee at the counter, and talking to another gentleman who was very tall and thin.
'I am going, Madame, replied Gaston, calmly, 'but I thought I would come up in order to assist you to put the nugget in the trap. 'Oh, Mr Marchurst would have done that, said Madame, much gratified at Vandeloup's attention. 'I'm sorry you should miss your evening's pleasure for that.
Fortunately, however, for Gaston, these two gentlemen never met, and Gollipeck came to the conclusion that he could see nothing to blame in Vandeloup's conduct, though he certainly mistrusted him, and determined mentally to keep an eye on his movements.
'My dear fellow, said Bellthorp, putting his arm in that of Vandeloup's, 'wherever he gets it, he always has it, so as long as he pays his way it's none of our business; come and have a drink. Vandeloup assented with a laugh, and they went to the bar.
'I assure you, my dear fellow, if you treat me well, I'm a very easy person to deal with. The eyes of the two men met for a moment across the table, and Vandeloup's had such a meaning look in them, that Meddlechip dropped his own with a shiver.
Madame, of course, believed that Kitty had gone from Ballarat straight on to the stage, and never thought for a moment that for a whole year she had been Vandeloup's mistress, so when Kitty found this out as she very soon did she took the cue at once, and asserted positively to Madame that she had been on the stage for eighteen months.
If Kitty had only trusted her when she came to live with her all this misery and crime would have been avoided, for she would have known Madame Midas would never have married Vandeloup, and thus would have had no motive for committing the crime. Regarding Vandeloup's pretensions to her hand, Mrs Villiers laughed bitterly to herself.
'There was a night light burning, replied Kitty, pointing to the fragments on the floor; 'and I could only guess it was M. Vandeloup's portrait; but at all events, she said, quickly, 'I sat down in the chair over there and fell asleep. 'You see, doctor, she had been to a ball and was tired, interposed Madame Midas; 'but go on, Kitty, I want to know why you say Selina was poisoned.
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