She nodded.
“Take care of these gentlemen till I descend,” she ordered. “You will not mind?” she added, turning pleadingly to Sogrange. “To-day I have eaten nothing. I am faint with hunger. Afterwards, it will be a matter but of half an hour. You can be in London again by ten o’clock.”
“As you will, madame,” Sogrange replied. “We are greatly indebted to you for your hospitality. But for costume, you understand that we are as we are?”
“It is perfectly understood,” she assured him. “For myself, I rejoin you in ten minutes. A loose gown, that is all.”
Sogrange and Peter were shown into a modern bathroom by a servant who was so anxious to wait upon them that they had difficulty in sending him away. As soon as he was gone and the door closed behind him, Peter put his foot against it and turned the key.
“You were going to write something to me in the car?”
Sogrange nodded.
“There was a moment,” he admitted, “when I had a suspicion. It has passed. This woman is no Roman. She sells the secrets of Bernadine as she would sell herself. Nevertheless, it is well always to be prepared. There were probably others beside Bernadine who had the entree here.”
“The only suspicious circumstance which I have noticed,” Peter remarked, “is the number of men-servants. I have seen five already.”
“It is only fair to remember,” Sogrange reminded him, “that the Baroness herself told us that there were no other save men-servants here and that they were all spies. Without a master, I cannot see that they are dangerous. One needs, however, to watch all the time.”