I wondered if I should not do well to put off this Northey, in spite of the fact that I had no other candidate and was beginning to feel the need of a secretary. Then my eye fell on the envelope of Louisa’s letter and I saw that she had scribbled something almost illegible on the back of it, by which I understood that the child was already on her way, in a cattle boat going from Glasgow via I couldn’t read what.
‘Good luck to her,’ said Philip, when I told him this. ‘What time do you think your uncle left the entresol last night?’ he added sourly.
‘About half-past three,’ I said. ‘I heard them. Mrs Jungfleisch brought champagne, by the sound of it.’
‘I’ve been talking to Mildred, she says it was absolutely hilarious – Pauline and Mr Warbeck are wonderful together, telling tales of the 1920s. If I were you I should put a stop to all this, it’s only prolonging the agony. Mildred says Pauline, who had been getting rather bored, has taken on a new lease of life.’
‘We must give him time, Philip. He’s only been here two days – I’m sure he’ll fix it in the end, he is so clever.’
‘Hm – I feel very doubtful.’
So, in my heart of hearts, did I.
Davey now appeared, bright and bustling, not at all like a man in the late sixties who had been up until half-past three. ‘Sorry I’m late. Docteur Lecœur has just been round to give me an injection of bull’s brains.’
‘Oh, so you found him then.’
‘He’s dead. But his son carries on in the same old house, with the same concierge. Paris is extraordinary the way nothing changes. If I hadn’t lost that address book I would have found all those nice friends of mine, or at least their children.’
‘And what about the Marquis and the Academician?’
‘Both away. Hope to see me next time I come. Anyhow, Lecœur was the important one – goodness, I felt exhausted this morning – the lives you lead here – I wasn’t in bed till four!’
‘I heard you shrieking,’ I said, reproachfully.
‘I wished you’d popped down. Pauline was at the peak of her form. We had the life cycle of the Bolter, among other things, and now of course they are all longing to meet you.’
Philip looked at me significantly.
I said, ‘I hope you had a good dinner?’ Davey was fussy about food.
‘Not very. Coarsely mashed potatoes – there’s no excuse for that, nowadays. However, enough of this frivolity, agreeable as it has been. I was quite right to go into the thing thoroughly and in fact I only thought of the solution to our problem late at night after several glasses of wine.’
‘You have thought of a solution?’
‘Yes. It’s very simple but none the worse for that, I hope. As Philip so truly says, one can’t starve Pauline out and one certainly can’t lecture her out. We must bore her out. The problem is how to stop all these Dukes and Rothschilds and countless Countesses from going to visit her. Now I suppose the social life here is built up on “extras”, those men in white coats who go from party to party handing things round?’
‘Indeed it is,’ said Philip, ‘more so every day.’
‘You must get hold of one who is seen at all the big receptions. IS SEEN are the operative words. He must know everybody by sight, but above all they must be well aware he does. Post him at the steps to the entresol, paper and pencil in hand, and tell him to write down the names of Pauline’s visitors – he might ask them as they go in – it must be very much underlined, what he is up to. At the same time, Philip, you must put it about on the grape vine that those who are found frequenting the entresol will not be invited to anything here during The Visit. I think you’ll find that will do the trick all right.’
Philip gave a great shout of laughter – Davey joined in and they rocked to and fro. ‘Wonderful,’ Philip said.
‘I think it’s rather neat myself.’
‘But what Visit?’ I was considerably unnerved.
‘Not necessary to specify,’ said Philip, who now showed the true niceness of his character by accepting Davey’s scheme with whole-hearted appreciation, ‘the word Visit, with a capital V, is magical in Paris. To the gens du monde it is as the din of battle to the warrior. They will never risk missing it, like brave Crillon, simply in order to have a few more jolly evenings with Pauline. Hitherto it has been a sign of social failure not to be seen in the entresol – from now on it will be social death to go there. I’d have given anything to have thought of your scheme myself – what a genius you are. The decks will be cleared in half an hour.’
‘It must be properly organized,’ said Davey.
‘Yes, indeed. We won’t allow it to go off at half-cock, that would never do. First I’ll ring up the greatest gossips I know. Then I’ll go and engage M’sieur Clément. He’s our boy, he rules the concierges of the Avenue du Bois with a rod of iron and is the king-pin of that neighbourhood. All Paris knows him by heart. So I’ve got a busy day, better get on with it. I congratulate you keenly,’ he said to Davey and went off.
Davey said complacently, ‘I hope now you are sorry that you suspected me of changing sides.’
‘Davey – I humbly apologize.’
‘Not that I mind. But you realize how it was. I had to find out what sort of people she was seeing. There are many amusing and delightful people here
