Arsène Lupin | Page 9

surprise and
uncertainty: these were not her friends, the Du Buits.
The elder man, advancing with a smiling bonhomie, bowed, and said in
an adenoid voice, ingratiating of tone: "I'm M. Charolais, young
ladies--M. Charolais--retired brewer--chevalier of the Legion of
Honour--landowner at Rennes. Let me introduce my son." The young
man bowed awkwardly. "We came from Rennes this morning, and we
lunched at Kerlor's farm."
"Shall I order tea for them?" whispered Sonia.
"Gracious, no!" said Germaine sharply under her breath; then, louder,
she said to M. Charolais, "And what is your object in calling?"
"We asked to see your father," said M. Charolais, smiling with broad
amiability, while his eyes danced across her face, avoiding any meeting
with hers. "The footman told us that M. Gournay-Martin was out, but
that his daughter was at home. And we were unable, quite unable, to
deny ourselves the pleasure of meeting you." With that he sat down;
and his son followed his example.
Sonia and Germaine, taken aback, looked at one another in some
perplexity.
"What a fine chateau, papa!" said the young man.
"Yes, my boy; it's a very fine chateau," said M. Charolais, looking

round the hall with appreciative but greedy eyes.
There was a pause.
"It's a very fine chateau, young ladies," said M. Charolais.
"Yes; but excuse me, what is it you have called about?" said Germaine.
M. Charolais crossed his legs, leant back in his chair, thrust his thumbs
into the arm-holes of his waistcoat, and said: "Well, we've come about
the advertisement we saw in the RENNES ADVERTISER, that M.
Gournay-Martin wanted to get rid of a motor-car; and my son is always
saying to me, 'I should like a motor-car which rushes the hills, papa.'
He means a sixty horse-power."
"We've got a sixty horse-power; but it's not for sale. My father is even
using it himself to-day," said Germaine.
"Perhaps it's the car we saw in the stable-yard," said M. Charolais.
"No; that's a thirty to forty horse-power. It belongs to me. But if your
son really loves rushing hills, as you say, we have a hundred
horse-power car which my father wants to get rid of. Wait; where's the
photograph of it, Sonia? It ought to be here somewhere."
The two girls rose, went to a table set against the wall beyond the
window, and began turning over the papers with which it was loaded in
the search for the photograph. They had barely turned their backs, when
the hand of young Charolais shot out as swiftly as the tongue of a lizard
catching a fly, closed round the silver statuette on the top of the cabinet
beside him, and flashed it into his jacket pocket.
Charolais was watching the two girls; one would have said that he had
eyes for nothing else, yet, without moving a muscle of his face, set in
its perpetual beaming smile, he hissed in an angry whisper, "Drop it,
you idiot! Put it back!"
The young man scowled askance at him.

"Curse you! Put it back!" hissed Charolais.
The young man's arm shot out with the same quickness, and the
statuette stood in its place.
There was just the faintest sigh of relief from Charolais, as Germaine
turned and came to him with the photograph in her hand. She gave it to
him.
"Ah, here we are," he said, putting on a pair of gold-rimmed pince- nez.
"A hundred horse-power car. Well, well, this is something to talk over.
What's the least you'll take for it?"
"I have nothing to do with this kind of thing," cried Germaine. "You
must see my father. He will be back from Rennes soon. Then you can
settle the matter with him."
M. Charolais rose, and said: "Very good. We will go now, and come
back presently. I'm sorry to have intruded on you, young ladies-- taking
up your time like this--"
"Not at all--not at all," murmured Germaine politely.
"Good-bye--good-bye," said M. Charolais; and he and his son went to
the door, and bowed themselves out.
"What creatures!" said Germaine, going to the window, as the door
closed behind the two visitors. "All the same, if they do buy the
hundred horse-power, papa will be awfully pleased. It is odd about that
pane. I wonder how it happened. It's odd too that Jacques hasn't come
back yet. He told me that he would be here between half- past four and
five."
"And the Du Buits have not come either," said Sonia. "But it's hardly
five yet."
"Yes; that's so. The Du Buits have not come either. What on earth are
you wasting your time for?" she added sharply, raising her voice. "Just

finish addressing those letters while you're waiting."
"They're nearly finished," said Sonia.
"Nearly isn't quite. Get on with them, can't you!"