Free Monsieur Monde Vanishes by Georges Simenon Page A

I’d run after him! But I was quite happy as I was.… D’you know Lille?”
    â€œI’ve been through it.…”
    â€œYou didn’t go to the Boule Rouge? It’s a little dive in a basement near the theater … The boss used to run a night club on Place Pigalle.… Fred, his name was.… They only have regulars there, a good class of people, who wouldn’t want to be seen just anywhere.… Businessmen from Roubaix and Tourcoing, you know the kind of thing.… There’s dancing in the evenings, and floor shows. I started off there as a dancer three years ago.…”
    He would have liked to know her age, but dared not ask her.
    â€œWaiter. Will you bring me a clean glass? I’ve let some crayfish drop in it.”
    While never losing the thread of her thoughts, she kept glancing at herself in the mirror, and she even seemed to be listening at the same time to the conversation between the lady in diamonds and her two companions.
    â€œWhat d’you suppose they are?” she suddenly demanded.
    â€œI don’t know. They surely can’t be her sons.”
    She burst out laughing. “Gigolos, I’d say! And she hasn’t known them long. Maybe nothing’s happened yet, for they’re glaring at one another and they don’t know which of them is going to win.… Her, I mean.… Well, I bet she owns a food store, a fish market or a delicatessen, in some smart district where business is good.… She’s treating herself to a fortnight in the South.”
    The waiter brought Monsieur Monde his steak. “The andouillette’ll be ready in a minute.… It’s coming along nicely.…”
    And the young woman went on: “My real name is Julie. I called myself Daisy when I danced. The gentlemen used to drop in for apéritifs too, and that was the nicest time, because there weren’t any tarts. We were all pals together. You may not believe me, but most of them behaved ever so properly with me. They just came there to get a change from their offices and homes, don’t you see?
    â€œOne of them, the nicest of the lot, a big fattish fellow, rather like you, was running after me for at least three months.… I knew what he was after but I wasn’t in any hurry.… He came from Roubaix.… A well-known family, very wealthy … He was scared stiff of being seen going into or out of the club, and he always sent the busboy to make sure nobody was passing in the street.…
    â€œHe wanted me to give up dancing. He rented a nice apartment for me on a quiet street with nothing but new houses.… And it’d all be going on still if it hadn’t been for Jean.… When he came to see me he brought things to eat, the best he could find, crayfish ten times the size of these, pineapples, early strawberries in little boxes lined with cotton wool, champagne.… We had little supper parties together.…”
    And suddenly, in an altered tone: “What did I tell you?”
    He failed to understand. She glanced meaningly at the neighboring table and, leaning forward, whispered:
    â€œTalking to the waiter about fish, she’s just told him that if she had the face to sell it at such a price … I was right! She’s a fishmonger! … As for the two kids, chances are they’ll be scratching one another’s faces like a couple of cats before the day’s out.…
    â€œWhere had I got to? Just to make you understand that I’m not indebted to that Jean for anything … On the contrary! From time to time I used to go back to the Boule Rouge, as a guest … because I had good friends there.… But I was respectable.… If I say so, you can believe me.…
    â€œThat was where I met Jean.… He was just a clerk in a hardware store, but at first he tried to make believe he was something high-class.… Everything he earned went on his clothes and on