Free She Fell Among Thieves by Dornford Yates

comes, we’ll plug him before he can think.’
    ‘Every time, sir,’ said Bell, warmly.
    But I knew in my heart there was no danger, because Mansel had given no order. My faithful servant was taking his name in vain.
    Half-an-hour later, perhaps, my hostess sat back in her stall. ‘You’re determined to leave us,’ she said. ‘Hasn’t Gaston contrived to induce you to alter your mind?’
    ‘I’m afraid not,’ said I, unsteadily.
    Vanity Fair shrugged her shoulders.
    ‘He’ll miss you terribly,’ she said. ‘Won’t you, Gaston?’
    De Rachel was understood to say that he would.
    ‘You don’t seem very sure about it.’
    ‘I shall be desolated,’ mouthed Gaston.
    ‘I had a feeling you would,’ said Vanity Fair. ‘Still you ought to have learned quite a lot in forty-eight hours. Did you make the most of your drive?’
    ‘I enjoyed it very much,’ said Gaston, with bulging eyes.
    Vanity Fair turned to me.
    ‘And you?’
    ‘It was delightful,’ said I, shakily. ‘The scenery–’
    ‘Yes. I wasn’t thinking of the scenery,’ said Vanity Fair. ‘Never mind. Candle’s arriving on Friday – I’ve just had a wire. The portrait-painter, you know. I want him to paint Virginia.’
    ‘They’ll do each other credit,’ said I. ‘He’s awfully good.’
    ‘So I’m told. If he does her well, I’m going to have him do Gaston and Father Below. The two together, you know – a conversational piece.’
    ‘I do not want to be painted,’ said Gaston violently.
    ‘That I can well believe. But I think you’ll appeal to Candle. There’s something about your smile that won’t go into words. There’s a note of interrogation about it which is curiously repulsive. And Father Below is pure Flemish.’
    ‘I say I do not want to be painted.’
    ‘I know. I heard you just now. If you say it again, I’ll point the obvious and have you done in a kilt.’
    We all broke down at that, and decency went to the winds. Virginia was simply convulsed. For the fiftieth time I wondered what manner of match this was.
    Vanity Fair was speaking.
    ‘Where shall you go, Mr Chandos?’
    ‘To Biarritz, I think. There may be some letters there. And so into Spain.’
    Vanity Fair nodded.
    ‘Send me a line,’ she said. ‘And a postcard of Burgos Cathedral. I was married there, but I haven’t seen it for years.’
    ‘Of course,’ said I.
    Father Below looked up.
    ‘May I ask your servant,’ he said, ‘to buy me some boots?’
    ‘Ask me,’ said I.
    ‘You’re very kind,’ said the priest. ‘Years ago I purchased some boots in Spain. I never knew such comfort. They had elastic sides.’
    ‘I won’t forget,’ I said, laughing.
    The priest blinked across the table.
    ‘I’m sorry you’re going,’ he said irrelevantly.
    ‘So are we all,’ cried Virginia.
    ‘Why?’ said Vanity Fair.
    ‘Madam,’ said Father Below, ‘he’s an honest face.’
    I felt very much ashamed.
    ‘His face is his fortune,’ said Vanity Fair.
    ‘And ours,’ said Acorn, suddenly.
    ‘Speech!’ shrieked Virginia. ‘Richard, you’ve got right off.’
    ‘Stay and be painted,’ said her mother. ‘Conversational piece with Virginia. And what did you think of the lanterns that came from Prague?’
    Her smile was dazzling: her gaze seemed to pierce my brain.
    ‘I shall never forget them,’ said I.
    ‘I think you’re rather like them.’
    ‘Like the lanterns?’ said I.
    ‘Yes,’ said Vanity Fair. Her eyes were like dancing flames. ‘They’re so very easy to see through, and yet, when one looks, one can hardly believe one’s eyes.’
    There was a moment’s silence.
    Then Gaston sniggered.
    Quick as a flash, the whip was laid to his back.
    ‘Have I said anything vulgar?’ said Vanity Fair.
     
    By noon the next day Lally was peeping below me and Jezreel was twenty miles off. The Col de Fer lay between us… For all that, I berthed the Rolls at a point from which I could see the road back for more than a mile. Such precaution