Monsieur George ought to have taken the very next train out of the town but he yielded to the temptation to discover what had happened to the house in the street of the Consuls after he and Dona Rita had stolen out of it like two scared yet jubilant children.All he discovered was a strange, fat woman, a sort of virago, who had, apparently, been put in as a caretaker by the man of affairs.She made some difficulties to admit that she had been in charge for the last four months; ever since the person who was there before had eloped with some Spaniard who had been lying in the house ill with fever for more than six weeks.No, she never saw the person.
Neither had she seen the Spaniard.She had only heard the talk of the street.Of course she didn't know where these people had gone.
She manifested some impatience to get rid of Monsieur George and even attempted to push him towards the door.It was, he says, a very funny experience.He noticed the feeble flame of the gas-jet in the hall still waiting for extinction in the general collapse of the world.
Then he decided to have a bit of dinner at the Restaurant de la Gare where he felt pretty certain he would not meet any of his friends.He could not have asked Madame Leonore for hospitality because Madame Leonore had gone away already.His acquaintances were not the sort of people likely to happen casually into a restaurant of that kind and moreover he took the precaution to seat himself at a small table so as to face the wall.Yet before long he felt a hand laid gently on his shoulder, and, looking up, saw one of his acquaintances, a member of the Royalist club, a young man of a very cheerful disposition but whose face looked down at him with a grave and anxious expression.
Monsieur George was far from delighted.His surprise was extreme when in the course of the first phrases exchanged with him he learned that this acquaintance had come to the station with the hope of finding him there.
"You haven't been seen for some time," he said."You were perhaps somewhere where the news from the world couldn't reach you? There have been many changes amongst our friends and amongst people one used to hear of so much.There is Madame de Lastaola for instance, who seems to have vanished from the world which was so much interested in her.You have no idea where she may be now?"Monsieur George remarked grumpily that he couldn't say.
The other tried to appear at ease.Tongues were wagging about it in Paris.There was a sort of international financier, a fellow with an Italian name, a shady personality, who had been looking for her all over Europe and talked in clubs - astonishing how such fellows get into the best clubs - oh! Azzolati was his name.But perhaps what a fellow like that said did not matter.The funniest thing was that there was no man of any position in the world who had disappeared at the same time.A friend in Paris wrote to him that a certain well-known journalist had rushed South to investigate the mystery but had returned no wiser than he went.
Monsieur George remarked more unamiably than before that he really could not help all that.
"No," said the other with extreme gentleness, "only of all the people more or less connected with the Carlist affair you are the only one that had also disappeared before the final collapse.""What!" cried Monsieur George.
"Just so," said the other meaningly."You know that all my people like you very much, though they hold various opinions as to your discretion.Only the other day Jane, you know my married sister, and I were talking about you.She was extremely distressed.Iassured her that you must be very far away or very deeply buried somewhere not to have given a sign of life under this provocation.
Naturally Monsieur George wanted to know what it was all about; and the other appeared greatly relieved.
"I was sure you couldn't have heard.I don't want to be indiscreet, I don't want to ask you where you were.It came to my ears that you had been seen at the bank to-day and I made a special effort to lay hold of you before you vanished again; for, after all, we have been always good friends and all our lot here liked you very much.Listen.You know a certain Captain Blunt, don't you?"Monsieur George owned to knowing Captain Blunt but only very slightly.His friend then informed him that this Captain Blunt was apparently well acquainted with Madame de Lastaola, or, at any rate, pretended to be.He was an honourable man, a member of a good club, he was very Parisian in a way, and all this, he continued, made all the worse that of which he was under the painful necessity of warning Monsieur George.This Blunt on three distinct occasions when the name of Madame de Lastaola came up in conversation in a mixed company of men had expressed his regret that she should have become the prey of a young adventurer who was exploiting her shamelessly.He talked like a man certain of his facts and as he mentioned names...
