"I ask," continued Barres thoughtfully, "because his summer home is at Northbrook, not far from my own home. And to me there is something peculiarly contemptible about disloyalty in the wealthy who owe every penny to the country they betray."
"His place is called Hohenlinden," remarked Renoux.
"Yes. Are you having it watched?"
Renoux smiled. Perhaps he was thinking about other places, also--the German Emba.s.sy, for example, where, inside the Emba.s.sy itself, not only France but also the United States Government was represented by a secret agent among the personnel.
"We try to learn what goes on among the boches," he said carelessly.
"They try the same game. But, Barres, they are singularly stupid at such things--not adroit, merely clumsy and brutal. The Hun cannot camouflage his native ferocity. He reveals himself.
"And in that respect it is fortunate for civilisation that it is dealing with barbarians. Their cunning is of the swinish sort. Their stench ultimately discovers them. You are discovering it for yourselves; you detected Dernberg; you already sniff Von Papen, Boy-ed, Bernstorff. All over the world the nauseous effluvia from the vast Teutonic hog-pen is being detected and recognised. And civilisation is taking sanitary measures to abate the nuisance.... And your country, too, will one day send out a sanitary brigade to help clean up the world, just as you now supply our details with the necessary chlorides and antiseptics."
Barres laughed:
"You are very picturesque," he said. "And I"ll tell you one thing, if we don"t join the sanitary corps now operating, I shall go out with a bottle of chloride myself."
They entered Dragon Court a few moments later. n.o.body was at the desk, it being late.
"To-morrow," said Barres, as they ascended the stairs, "my friends, Miss Soane, Miss Dunois, and Mr. Westmore are to be our guests at Foreland Farms. You didn"t know that, did you?" he added sarcastically.
"Oh, yes," replied Renoux, much amused. "Miss Dunois, as you call her, sent her trunks away this evening."
Barres, surprised and annoyed, halted on the landing:
"Your people didn"t interfere, I hope."
"No. There was nothing in them of interest to us," said Renoux navely. "I sent a report when I sent on to Washington the papers which you secured for us."
Barres paused before his studio door, key in hand. They could hear the gramophone going inside. He said:
"I don"t have to ask you to be fair, Renoux, because the man who is unfair to others swindles himself, and you are too decent, too intelligent to do that. I am going to present you to Thessalie Dunois, which happens to be her real name, and I am going to tell her in your presence who you are. Then I shall leave you alone with her."
He fitted his latchkey and opened the door.
Westmore was trying fancy dancing with Dulcie on one side, and Thessalie on the other--the latter evidently directing operations.
"Garry!" exclaimed Thessalie.
"You"re a fine one! Where have you been?" began Westmore. Then he caught sight of Renoux and became silent.
Barres led his comrade forward and presented him:
"A fellow student of the Beaux Arts," he explained, "and we"ve had a very jolly evening together. And, Thessa, there is something in particular that I should like to have you explain to Monsieur Renoux, if you don"t mind...." He turned and looked at Dulcie: "If you will pardon us a moment, Sweetness."
She nodded and smiled and took Westmore"s arm again, and continued the dance alone with him while Barres, drawing Thessalie"s arm through his, and pa.s.sing his other arm through Renoux"s, walked leisurely through his studio, through the now open folding doors, past his bedroom and Westmore"s, and into the latter"s studio beyond.
"Thessa, dear," he said very quietly, "I feel very certain that the worst of your troubles are about to end----" He felt her start slightly. "And," he continued, "I have brought my comrade, Renoux, here to-night so that you and he can clear up a terrible misunderstanding.
"And Monsieur Renoux, once a student of architecture at the Beaux Arts, is now Captain Renoux of the Intelligence Department in the French Army----"
Thessalie lost her colour and a tremor pa.s.sed through the arm which lay within his.
But he said calmly:
"It is the only way as well as the best way, Thessa. I know you are absolutely innocent. I am confident that Captain Renoux is going to believe it, too. If he does not, you are no worse off. Because it has already become known to the French Government that you are here.
Renoux knew it."
They had halted; Barres led Thessalie to a seat. Renoux, straight, deferential, correct, awaited her pleasure.
She looked up at him; his keen, intelligent eyes met hers.
"If you please, Captain Renoux, will you do me the honour to be seated?" she said in a low voice.
Barres went to her, bent over her hand, touched it with his lips.
"Just tell him the truth, Thessa, dear," he said.
"Everything?" she smiled faintly, "including our first meeting?"
Barres flushed, then laughed:
"Yes, tell him about that, too. It was too charming for him not to appreciate."
And with a half mischievous, half amused nod to Renoux he went back to find the dancers, whom he could hear laughing far away in his own studio.
It was nearly one o"clock when Dulcie, who had been sleeping with Thessalie, whispered to Barres that she was ready to retire.
"Indeed, you had better," he said, releasing her as the dance music ran down and ceased. "If you don"t get some sleep you won"t feel like travelling to-morrow."
"Will you explain to Thessa?"
"Of course. Good-night, dear."
She gave him her hand in silence, turned and offered it to Westmore, then went away toward her room.
Westmore, who had been fidgeting a lot since Thessalie had retired for a tete-a-tete with a perfectly unknown and alarmingly good-looking young man whom he never before had laid eyes on, finally turned short in his restless pacing of the studio.
"What the deuce can be keeping Thessa?" he demanded. "And who the devil is that black-eyed young sprig of France you brought home with you?"
"Sit down and I"ll tell you," said Barres crisply, instinctively resenting his friend"s uncalled for solicitude in Thessalie"s behalf.
So Westmore seated himself and Barres told him all about the evening"s adventures. And he was still lingering unctuously over the details of the battle at Grogan"s, the recital of which, Westmore demanding, he had begun again, when at the farther end of the studio Thessalie appeared, coming toward them.
Renoux was beside her, very deferential and graceful in his attendance, and with that niceness of att.i.tude which confesses respect in every movement.
Thessalie came forward; Barres advanced to meet her with the unspoken question in his eyes, and she gave him both her hands with a tremulous little smile of happiness.