Part 40 (1/2)

”I am rather good at it,” Norvin confessed, whereat Papa La Branche seemed about to embrace him.

”You are sent from heaven!” he declared. ”You deliver me from darkness. Thirty-seven games of Napoleon to-day! Think of it! I was dealing the thirty-eighth when you came. But piquet! Ah, that is a game, even though my angel wife abominates it. We have still five days of this hideous imprisonment, so let us agree to an hour before lunch, an hour before dinner, then--um-,--perhaps two hours in the evening at a few cents a game, eh? You agree, my friend?” The little man peered up timidly. ”Perhaps--but no, I dare say you are sleepy, and it _is_ late.”

”I should enjoy a game or two right now,” Norvin falsified. ”But first, don't you think we'd better rehea.r.s.e our explanation of my presence?”

”A good idea. You came to see me upon business. I telephoned, and you came like a good friend, then--let me see, I was so overjoyed to see a new face that I rushed forth to greet you, and behold! that scorpion, that loathsome reptile outside p.r.o.nounced you infected. He forced you to enter, even against my protestations. It was all my fault. I am desolated with regrets. Eh? How is that? You see nature designed me for a rogue.”

”Excellent! But what is our important business?”

”True. Since I retired from active affairs I have no business. That is awkward, is it not? May I ask in what line you are engaged?”

”I am a cotton factor.”

”Then I shall open an account with you. I shall give you money to invest. Come, there need be no deceit about that; I shall write you a check at once.”

”That's hardly necessary, so long as we understand each other.”

But Mr. La Branche insisted, saying:

”One lie is all that I dare undertake. I have told two at the same time, but invariably they clashed and disaster resulted. There! I trust you to make use of the money as you think best. But enough! What do women know of business? It is a mysterious word to them. Now-- piquet!” He dragged Norvin to a seat at a table, then trotted away in search of cards, his slippers clap-clapping at every step as if in gleeful applause. ”Shall we cut for deal, M'sieu? Ah!” He sighed gratefully as he won, and began to shuffle. ”With four hours of piquet every day, and a lie upon my conscience, I feel that I shall be happy in spite of this execrable smallpox.”

Myra Nell's emotions may be imagined when, on the following morning, she learned who had broken through the cordon while she slept.

”Lordy! Lordy!” she exclaimed, with round eyes. ”He said he'd do it; but I didn't think he really would.”

She had flounced into Vittoria's room to gossip while she combed her hair.

”Mr. La Branche says it's all his fault, and he's terribly grieved,”

Miss Fabrizi told her. ”Now, now! Your eyes are fairly popping out.”

”Wouldn't your eyes pop out if the handsomest, the richest, the bravest man in New Orleans deliberately took his life in his hands to see you and be near you?”

”But he says it was important business which brought him.” Vittoria smiled guiltily.

”Tell that to your granny! You don't know men as I do. Have you really seen him? I'm not _dreaming_?”

”I have seen him, with these very eyes, and if you were not such a lazy little pig you'd have seen him, too. Shall you take your breakfast in your room, as usual?” Vittoria's eyes twinkled.

”Don't tease me!” Miss Warren exclaimed, with a furious blush. ”I--I love to tease other people, but I can't stand it myself. Breakfast in my room, indeed! But of course I shall treat him with freezing politeness.”

”Why should you pretend to be offended?”

”Don't you understand? This is bound to cause gossip. Why, the idea of Norvin Blake, the handsomest, the richest--”

”Yes, yes.”

”The idea of his getting himself quarantined in the same house with _me_, and our being here together for days--maybe for _months!_ Why, it will create the loveliest scandal. I'll never dare hold up my head again in public, _never_. You see how it must make me feel. I'm compromised.” Myra Nell undertook to show horror in her features, but burst into a gale of laughter.

”Do you care for him very much?”