“I shall welcome the surprise.”
“We both shall welcome it, I think!” he laughed. “It seems a long time since I’ve seen you, Madeline,” he added.
“It seems a long time to me, too, Billy. We must do better now, old friend. Come to Paris and we’ll make such a celebration of it that the Boulevards will run with—gaiety.”
“I shall come. Meanwhile—tomorrow.” He raised his stick to the taxi dispatcher. “I’m sorry to leave you,” he confided to her.
“Let me take you as far as the Capitol,” she urged.
“Not today. Wait until I come to Paris—then you may take me where you will and how.”
“I like you, Billy!” she exclaimed.
“And I’ve something more to tell you,” he whispered, as he put her in and closed the door. “The Chateau!” he said to the driver then stepping back, he doffed his hat and waved his hand.
“Yes, I like you, Mr. Davidson,” she smiled, as the taxi sped away, “but I’ll like you better when the present business is completed and I’m in Paris—without you.”
He was a handsome chap enough, and he would have considerable money when the present business was completed, yet, somehow he did not appeal, even to her mercenary side. Moreover she no longer dealt in his sort. Time was when he would have served admirably, but she was done with plucking for plucking’s sake. She plucked still, but neither so ruthlessly nor so omnivorously as of yore. She did not need; nor was she so gregarious in her tastes. She could pick and choose, and wait—and have some joy of Him and take her time; be content not to pluck him clean, and so retain his friendship even after he had been displaced. With her now it was the man in high office or of high estate at whom she aimed—and her aim was usually true. Neither with one of her tastes and tendencies was monogamy apt to be attractive nor practiced—though at times it subserved her expediency. At present, it was the Count de M——, an English Cabinet Minister, and a Russian Grand Duke;—but discreetly, oh, so discreetly that none ever dreamed of the others, and the public never dreamed of them. To all outward appearances, she dwelt in the odor of eminent respectability and sedate gaiety.