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Selingman's blue eyes were twinkling with humour, his smile was broad and irresistible. "This should send funds up in every capital of Europe," he declared, as he shook hands. "When Mr. Meredith Simpson takes a holiday, then the political barometer points to 'set fair'!" "A tribute to my conscientiousness," the Minister replied, smiling.
Selingman's supper party was in some respects both distinctive and unusual. Norgate, looking around him, thought that he had never in his life been among such a motley assemblage of people.
"And now," she exclaimed, "you find that you belong to the same bridge club. What a coincidence!" "It is rather surprising, I must admit," Norgate assented. "Mr. Selingman and I discussed many things last night, but we did not speak of bridge. In fact, from the tone of our conversation, I should have imagined that cards were an amusement which scarcely entered into Mr. Selingman's scheme of life."
With these bases it would be easy to fix a reasonable indemnity." Norgate was wide-awake now. He was curled up on his seat, underneath his rug, and though his eyelids had quivered with a momentary excitement, he was careful to remain as near as possible motionless. Again Selingman's agent spoke, this time more distinctly. "The young man opposite," he whispered. "He is English, surely?"
But for me, it is dull. Monsieur l'Anglais shall talk with me, and you may hear all the secrets that Alice has to tell. We," she murmured, looking up at Norgate, "will speak of other things, is it not so?" For a moment Selingman hesitated. Norgate would have moved on with a little farewell nod, but Selingman's companions were insistent.
Norgate was on the point of speaking of his excursion to Knocke but was conscious of Selingman's curiously intent gaze. The spirit of duplicity seemed to grow upon him. "I walked for a little way," he said. "Afterwards I lay upon the sands and slept. When I found that the steamer was still further delayed, I had a bath. That was half an hour ago.
My husband is a friend of Herr Selingman's." The Count glanced quickly towards Norgate. There was some relief in his face a great deal of distrust, however. "Baroness," he said, "my advice to you, for your own good entirely, is, with all respect to your husband, that you shorten your honeymoon and pay your respects to the Emperor. I think that you owe it to him.
Anna drew a great sigh of content as she settled down in her chair. "I think I must have been lonely for a long time," she whispered, "for it is so delightful to get back and be with you. Tell me what you have been doing?" "I have been promoted," Norgate announced. "My prospective alliance with you has completed Selingman's confidence in me. I have been entrusted with several commissions."
"During the momentary absence of this fellow and his agent from the carriage," Norgate proceeded, "I possessed myself of a slip of paper which had become detached from the packet of documents they had been examining. It consisted of a list of names mostly of people resident in the United Kingdom, purporting to be Selingman's agents.
I asked a man whom I met on the promenade where one might dine in travelling clothes, lightly but well, and he sent me here the Bar de Londres and here, for my good fortune, I am." "It is a pity that monsieur does not speak French," one of Selingman's companions murmured. "But, mademoiselle," Norgate protested, "I have spoken French all my life. Herr Selingman here has misunderstood me.
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