"A very minor rôle, Athenais ... But are you doing me the honour to be jealous?"
"Perhaps, petit Monsieur Paul..."
In the broken light of passing lamps her quiet smile was as illegible as her shadowed eyes.
After a moment Lanyard laughed a little, caught up her hand, patted it indulgently, and with gentle decision replaced it in her lap.
"It isn't fair, my dear, to be putting foolish notions into elderly heads merely because you know you can do it. Show a little respect for my grey hairs, of which there are far too many."
"They're most becoming," said Athenais Reneaux demurely. "But tell me about Liane, if it isn't a secret."
"Oh! that was so long ago and such a trifling thing, one wonders at remembering it at all.... I happened, one night, to be where I had no right to be. That was rather a habit of mine, I'm afraid. And so I discovered, in another man's apartment, a young woman, hardly more than a child, trying to commit suicide. You may believe I put a stop to that.... Later, for in those days I had some little influence in certain quarters, I got her place in the chorus at the Variétés. She made up a name for the stage: Liane Delorme. And that is all. You see, it was very simple."
"And she was grateful?"
"Not oppressively. She was quite normal about it all."
"Still, she has not forgotten."