Again the woman went off, and when she came back she exclaimed, “He will be down in two or three minutes. Please come this way!”
She showed the visitors into a dingy little back room, where there were three deep armchairs and a number of cane-bottomed chairs. On two marble-topped tables were ash-trays and match-boxes. The windows were shut, and the room smelt musty. What a strange place in which to receive visitors!
Before leaving the room the woman came close up to the Count and said in a low voice:
“Does Monsieur le Comte know anything about Mr. Vissering? We find him a very curious kind of gentleman! He insists on paying every day, and he is so mean—he scrutinises every sou in the account! Yet we know that he has a very large sum of money always on his person. That is not safe in a place like Monte Carlo, and my husband has begged him again and again to leave his money in our safe. But he is very suspicious.”
“I know even less about him than you do,” answered the Count amiably. “But I am not surprised at what you tell me. A certain type of nouveau riche either spends too much or too little. I know very little of your client. You will remember that you yourself introduced him to me.”
“Yes, and I’m very grateful to Monsieur le Comte for the trouble he took. But as a client Mr. Vissering has disappointed us very much!” She waited a moment. “Was Monsieur le Comte able to get the card of admission he desired so much to possess? Fancy a man of that wealth not being able to get into the Club!”
“That was simply because Mr. Vissering did not already belong to a club in his own country. He is very old-fashioned, as you know, but there is no harm in him.”
The woman looked dubiously at Lily. “Ah, Monsieur le Comte, you do not know the things that I know! But there—I will say nothing.”
After Madame Sansot had left them the Count turned to Lily: “This fellow Vissering is truly a queer kind of man,” he muttered. “He was one of the war profiteers of Holland. That makes him feel he has the right to be insolent. You must not notice his odd manner.”
Lily smiled.