It was Adèle who pulled the check-string.
"What's the price of this rug?" she said quietly.
There was an expectant and guilty hush.
With a careless flourish we had called the tune—clamoured for it….
If the piper's fee was exorbitant, we had only ourselves to thank.
Planchet hesitated. Then—
"Five hundred francs, Madame."
Ten pounds.
You could have heard a pin drop.
The rug was worth sixty. In Regent Street or Fifth Avenue we should have been asked a hundred. If this was typical of Planchet's prices, no wonder Sally had plunged….
I took out a pencil and picked up a pad of notepaper.