Part 34 (1/2)
”I'll take you anywhere,” Julien promised. ”You don't mind waiting while I speak to the man whom I have come to meet?”
”Not at all,” she replied. ”You are sure he won't object?”
”Of course not,” Julien a.s.sured her. ”Kendricks is an awfully good sort.”
The two men gripped hands. Kendricks was carrying his own bag and smoking his accustomed pipe. He had apparently been asleep in the carriage and was looking a little more untidy than usual.
”I got your wire all right,” Julien said, ”and I am thundering glad to see you. Are you just in search of the ordinary sort of copy, or is there anything special doing?”
”Something special,” Kendricks answered, ”and you're in it. When can we talk? No hurry, as long as I see you some time to-night.”
”I am entirely at your service,” Julien declared. ”I have been bored to death for the last few weeks and I am only too anxious to have a talk.
You don't mind if I see this young lady to her friend's house first? I don't know exactly where it is, but it won't take very long. She is all alone, and as long as we have met I feel that I ought to look after her.”
”Naturally,” Kendricks agreed. ”I can go to my hotel and meet you anywhere you say for supper.”
Julien glanced at his watch.
”It is ten o'clock within a minute or two,” he announced. ”Supposing we make it half-past eleven at the Abbaye?”
Kendricks nodded.
”That'll suit me. So long!”
He strode away in search of a cab. Julien returned to Lady Anne and took the jewel-case from her fingers.
”It's all arranged,” he said. ”You are quite sure that you have no more luggage?”
She laughed.
”Not a sc.r.a.p! Have you ever traveled without luggage, Julien? It makes you feel that you are really in for adventures.”
”Does it!” he replied a little weakly. Somehow or other, he had never a.s.sociated a love for adventures with Lady Anne.
”Isn't it fun to be in Paris once more?” she continued. ”I want a real rickety little _voiture_ and I want the man to have a white hat, if possible, and I want to drive down into Paris over those cobbles.”
”Any particular address?”
She handed him a card. He called an open victoria and directed the man.
Together they drove out of the station yard. Lady Anne leaned forward, looking around her with keen pleasure.
”Julien,” she cried, ”this is delightful, meeting you! I hope I shan't be a bother to you, but really it is rather nice to feel that I have one friend here.”
”You couldn't possibly be a bother to me,” he declared. ”I'm rather a waif here myself, you know, and I am honestly glad to see you.”
She looked at him quickly and breathed a little sigh of relief.
”Now that's sweet of you,” she said. ”Of course, I don't see why you shouldn't be. We were always good friends, weren't we? and it makes me feel so much more comfortable to remember that we never went in for the other sort of thing.”