“Where is his château?” asked Geoffrey.
“The Château de Rochehaut, in the Semois, not very far from Dinant,” the girl replied. “He has asked me to get his official car from the Ministry and take you there.”
“It is very kind of Monsieur Marvaut,” Falconer said. “Please tell him I shall be delighted to visit him. I hope the wireless station will be ready for the official tests by Wednesday.”
“Very well,” she said. “I have the car outside now. If you are returning to Dinant I can take you as far as Namur—for I am going there. The morning is delightful.”
Nothing loth, Geoffrey quickly packed his suit-case, paid his bill, and putting into the car the box of instruments which had come over from London by air, got in beside his extremely handsome companion.
But the driver of the car, a smart chauffeur, though Falconer was ignorant of the fact, was the same man who had so closely watched his movements at the Café Métropole on the previous night. The morning was indeed glorious, and the run out to Etterbeek, and through the beautiful forest of Soignes to Groenendael, and on by way of Ottignies and Gembloux to Namur, thirty miles distant from Brussels, was most enjoyable.
Mademoiselle, bright and vivacious, was in excellent mood. Several times she had come from Brussels with messages from the director, and called upon him at the Tête d’Or Hotel, in Dinant, where he had taken up his quarters. Yet more than once it had struck Geoffrey as curious that the messages had always been verbal ones. And now it seemed strange that the invitation to visit Monsieur Marvaut had come through her, and not in the form of a personal letter.
As they were speeding along into Namur, Mademoiselle suddenly turned, saying:
“I expect you may have to wait for a train to take you on to Dinant. I have plenty of time—so I’ll take you on to your destination.”
Hence he asked her to lunch at the Tête d’Or on their arrival, and they took their meal at a little table out on the veranda which overlooks the rock-girt river, a corner well shaded, where, seated opposite to each other, they both chatted and laughed merrily.