The countess, growing more and more attached to her own joke, was exceptionally tolerant.
"Let 'em laugh," she said. "It'll make it all the funnier when he flops."
She saw him a third time at supper at "21" and invited him to join her party for coffee. He came over, smiling and immaculate, as much at ease as if he had been her favourite nephew. While she introduced him — a briefer business now, for he had met some of the party before — she pointedly fingered the coruscating rope of diamonds on her neck.
"You see I've still got it on," she said as he sat down.
"I noticed that the lights seemed rather bright over here," he admitted. "You've been showing it around quite a lot lately, haven't you? Are you making the most of it while you've got it?"
"I want to make sure that you can't say I didn't give you plenty of chances."
"Aren't you afraid that some ordinary grab artist might get it first? You know I have my competitors."
She looked at him with thinly veiled derision.
"I'll begin to think there is a risk of that, if you don't do something soon. And the suspense is making me quite jittery. Haven't you been able to think of a scheme yet?"
Simon's eyes rested on her steadily for a moment while he drew on his cigarette.