"Madame knows that the baron is never at home. I did go there,
however, but in vain."
This chanced to be one of three consecutive days which Baron
Trigault had spent with Kami-Bey, the Turkish ambassador. It had
been agreed between them that they should play until one or the
other had lost five hundred thousand francs; and, in order to
prevent any waste of "precious time," as the baron was wont to
remark, they neither of them stirred from the Grand Hotel, where
Kami-Bey had a suite of rooms. They ate and slept there. By some
strange chance, Madame d'Argeles had not heard of this duel with
bank-notes, although nothing else was talked of at the clubs;
indeed, the Figaro had already published a minute description of
the apartment where the contest was going on; and every evening it
gave the results. According to the latest accounts, the baron had
the advantage; he had won about two hundred and eighty thousand
francs.
"I only returned to inform madame that I had so far been
unsuccessful," said Job. "But I will recommence the search at
once."
"That is unnecessary," replied Madame d'Argeles. "The baron will
undoubtedly drop in this evening, after dinner, as usual."
She said this, and tried her best to believe it; but in her secret
heart she felt that she could no longer depend upon the baron's
assistance. "I wounded him this morning," she thought.
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