Page:Rowland--The closing net.djvu/308

288 business and the desire to make good, and—oh, there were many reasons why I did not want to clear out!

Ivan reached over rather wearily and touched a bell. His servant, Pierre, who looked rather like a mink, came to the door.

"Get a bottle of champagne and some sandwiches," said Ivan; then looked at me, and his thin smile parted his lips again. "You'll join me in some refreshment, won't you?"

So we drank a bottle of champagne between us and ate some sandwiches, and talked about different things. Ivan asked me no questions about my stalk of Chu-Chu. The business seemed to bore him. It was plain enough he was bothered by troubles of his own; and once or twice, when there came a step outside on the pavement, he stiffened like a bird-dog that scents game. It was after two when I got up to go, and Ivan went down with me through the garden and let me out through the little door in the wall.

"Some day, when we've both retired and are living in the world where we belong, we may be good friends, Monsieur Clamart," says he in a tired voice. "But, meantime, business is business. Take my advice and clear out for a while. If you don't, Chu-Chu will surely get you, because, as I said before, I need the man and can't have him interfered with. I've offered you your chance, and if you haven't chosen to profit by it you have only yourself to blame if anything unpleasant happens."

"Is that a polite way of saying that if I scrag