"Do sit down, please, everybody," said Auriol, after the introductions. "I feel like a common nuisance. But I came by the night train and went to sleep and only woke up to find myself just in time for the fag-end of lunch."
"I am host," said I. "Won't you join us?"
What else was there to do? She glanced at me with smiling inscrutability.
"You're awfully kind, Tony. But I'm disturbing you."
The maitre d'hôtel and waiter with a twist of legerdemain set her place between myself and Lackaday.
"This is a charming spot, isn't it, Madame Patou?" she remarked.
Elodie, who had regarded her wonderingly as though she had bean a creature of another world, bowed and smiled.
"We all talk French, my dear Auriol," said I, "because Madame Patou knows no English."
"Ah!" said Lady Auriol. "I never thought of it." She translated her remark. "I'm afraid my French is that of the British Army, where I learned most of it. But if people are kind and patient I can make myself understood."
"Mademoiselle speaks French very well," replied Elodie politely.