“Freddie is really rather a dear at times. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who is so nearly an idiot without being one. Still,” she repeated thoughtfully, “he’s rather a dear.”
Lakington turned a handle underneath the bath, and the liquid, now clear and still, commenced to sink rapidly. Fascinated, Hugh watched the process; in two minutes the bath was empty—a human body had completely disappeared without leaving a trace. It seemed to him as if he must have been dreaming, as if the events of the whole night had been part of some strange jumbled nightmare. And then, having pinched himself to make sure he was awake, he once more glued his eyes to the open space of the window.
Lakington was swabbing out the bath with some liquid on the end of a mop; Peterson, his chin sunk on his chest, was still pacing slowly up and down; the girl, her neck and shoulders gleaming white in the electric light, was lighting a second cigarette from the stump of the first. After a while Lakington finished his cleaning operations and put on his coat.
“What,” he asked curiously, “does he think you are?”
“A charming young girl,” answered Irma demurely, “whose father lost his life in the war, and who at present ekes out a precarious existence in a government office. At least, that’s what he told Lady Frumpley—she’s the woman of unassailable virtue. She was profoundly sentimental and scents a romance, in addition to being a snob and scenting a future duke, to say nothing of a future duchess. By the mercy of Allah she’s on a committee with his mother for distributing brown-paper underclothes to destitute Belgians, and so Freddie wangled an invite for her. Voilà tout.”
“Splendid!” said Lakington slowly. “Splendid! Young Laidley comes of age in about a week, doesn’t he?”
“Monday, to be exact, and so I go down with my dear aunt on Saturday.”
Lakington nodded his head as if satisfied, and then glanced at his watch.
“What about bed?” he remarked.
“Not yet,” said Peterson, halting suddenly in his walk. “I must see the Yank before I go to Paris. We’ll have him down here now.”