In front of us, on the opposite side of the table, stood a tall, thin-faced, elderly, clean-shaven man of sallow complexion, and very smartly dressed. In his black cravat he wore a splendid diamond pin, and on his finger, as he tossed a louis on the “noir,” another fine gem glistened. That man, though so essentially a gentleman from his exterior appearance, was known to me as one of “us,” as shrewd and clever an adventurer as ever trod those polished boards. He was Henri Regnier, known to his intimates as “Monsieur le President,” because he had once, by personating the President of the Chamber of Deputies, robbed the Crédit Lyonnais of one hundred thousand francs, and served five years at Toulon for it.
And across at him the pretty Pierrette shot a quick look of recognition and laughed. “The President” nodded slightly, and laughed back in return. He glanced at me. Our eyes met, but we neither of us acknowledged the other. It is the rule with men of our class. We are always strangers, except when it is to the interests of either party to appear friends.
But what did this nod to Pierrette mean? How could she be acquainted with Henri Regnier?
“Do you know that man?” I asked her, as presently we moved away from the table.
“What man?” she inquired, her eyes opening widely in assumed ignorance.
“I thought you nodded recognition to a man across the table,” I remarked, disappointed at her attempt to deceive me.
“No,” she replied; “I didn’t recognise anyone. You were mistaken. He perhaps nodded to somebody else.”
This reply of hers increased the mystery. Had she deceived me when she told me that she was the daughter of old Dumont the jeweller? If so, then I had sent Bindo back to London on a wild goose-chase.
We passed back into the roulette rooms, and for quite a long time she stood at the first table at the left of the entrance, watching the game intently.
A man I knew passed, and I crossed to chat with him. In ten minutes or so I returned to her side, and as I did so she bent and took from the end of the croupier’s rake three one-thousand-franc notes, while all eyes at the table were fixed upon her.