“Here is a gentleman,” said the valet, “who insists upon seeing madame. You fix it with him.”
Better than her fellow servant, Mlle. Amanda could judge with whom she had to deal. A single glance at this obstinate visitor convinced her that he was not one who can be easily turned off.
Putting on, therefore, her pleasantest smile, thus displaying at the same time her decayed teeth,
“The fact is that monsieur will very much disturb madame,” she observed.
“I shall excuse myself.”
“But I’ll be scolded.”
Instead of answering, M. de Tregars took a couple of twenty-franc-notes out of his pocket, and slipped them into her hand.
“Please follow me to the parlor, then,” she said with a heavy sigh.
M. de Tregars did so, whilst observing everything around him with the attentive perspicacity of a deputy sheriff preparing to make out an inventory.
Being double, the house was much more spacious than could have been thought from the street, and arranged with that science of comfort which is the genius of modern architects.