Part 9 (1/2)
”You mean you refuse to speak with me alone?”
”My friends would draw out of earshot,” he answered
”Your friends? Your gang, you mean!” She drew herself up very finely--very stately Very lovely she was to look at in that half-light, with the shadows of Tippoo Tib's old stairway hiding her tale of years But I feltdownhill (and so, I rather think did Yerkes) ”You look well, Lord Montdidier, trapesing about the earth with a leash of rels at your heel! Falstaff never picked up apack! What do you feed the bloods left of your own class, that you need travel with tradesmen?”
-------------The principal hotel In Zanzibar was fornificent mansion for that period and place
Monty stood with both hands behind him and never turned a hair Fred Oakes brushed up the ends of that troubadour mustache of his and struck more or less of an attitude Will reddened to the ears, and I never felt , is it?” she went on ”It looks sober at present! I suppose I must trust you to control them! I dare say even tavern brawlers respect you sufficiently to keep a lady's secret if you order theues!”
Of course, dressed in the best that Zanzibar stores had to offer we scarcely looked like fashi+on plates My shi+rt was torn where Coutlass had seized it to resist being thrown out, but I failed to see what she hoped to gain by that tongue lashi+ng, even supposing we had been the lackeys she pretended to believe ere
”The e is to my brother,” she went on
”I don't know him!” put in Monty promptly
”You mean you don't like him! Your brother had him expelled from two or three clubs, and you prefer not to e to take to him! Please tell him--you will find him at his old address--that I, his sister, Lady Saffren Waldon, kno the secret of Tippoo Tib's ivory He is to join et it, and sell it, and have e! Will you tell him that!”
”No!” answered Monty
I looked at Yerkes, Yerkes looked at Fred, and Fred atto do but feel astonished
”Why not, if you please?”
”I prefer not to ive the e to somebody else?” she insisted
”No” said Monty ”I will carry no e for you”
”Why do you say that? How dare you say that? In front of your following--your gang!”
I should have been inclined to continue the argument myself--to try to find out what she did know, and to uncover her game It was obvious she must have some reason for her extraordinary request, and herit But Monty saw fit to stride past her through his open bedroo at her and at one another stupidly until she turned her back and went to her own room on the floor above Then we followed Monty
”Did she say anything else?” he asked as soon as ere inside I noticed he eating pretty freely now
”Diduht to have told her to keep her tongue housed or be civil!”
”I don't hold with hitting back at a lone wo at? What did she rels?”
”Merely her way,” said Monty offhandedly ”Those particular McCauleys never amounted to much She married a baronet, and he divorced her
Bad scandal Saffren Waldon was at the War Office She stole papers, or so of that sort--delivered them to a German paramour--von Duvitz was his name, I think She and her brother were lucky to keep out of jail Ever since then she has been--so, soret it She's on her last legs I don't doubt, or she wouldn't be in Zanzibar”