"You can do a great deal of mischief in a week," Mrs. McBride said,
looking at him again critically. "I ought not to help you, but I can't
resist you--there! What can we devise?"
It is possible the probability of Theodora's father making a fourth may
have had something thing to do with her complaisance. Anyway, it was
decided that if feasible the four should spend a day at Versailles.
They should go in their two automobiles in time for breakfast at the
Réservoirs. They would start, Theodora in Mrs. McBride's with her, and
Captain Fitzgerald with Lord Bracondale, and each couple could spend the
afternoon as they pleased, dining again at the Réservoirs and whirling
back to Paris in the moonlight. A truly rural and refreshing programme,
good for the soul of man.
"And I can rely upon you to get rid of the husband?" said Lord
Bracondale, finally. "I do not see the poetry of the affair with his
bald head and mutton-chop whiskers as an accessory."
"Leave that to Captain Fitzgerald and myself," Mrs. McBride said,
proudly. "I have a scheme that Mr. Brown shall spend the day with
Clutterbuck R. Tubbs, examining some new machinery they are both
interested in. Leave it to me!" The part of Deus ex machina was always
a rôle the widow loved.
Then they descended to an agreeable lunch in the restaurant, with a
numerous party of her friends as usual, and Lord Bracondale felt
afterwards full of joy and hope, to continue his sinful path
unrepenting.
The days that intervened before Theodora saw him again were uneventful
and full of blankness. The walks in the Bois appeared more tedious than
ever in the morning, the drives in the Acacias more exasperating. It was
a continual alertness to see if she caught sight of a familiar face, but
she never did. Fate was against them, as she sometimes is when she means
to compensate soon after by some glorious day of the gods. And although
Lord Bracondale called at her hotel and walked where he thought he
should see her, and even drove in the Acacias, they had no meeting.
Josiah did not feel himself sufficiently strong to stand the air of
theatres, and they went nowhere in the evenings. He was keeping himself
for his own dinner-party, which was to take place at the Madrid on the
Monday.
Captain Fitzgerald had arranged it, and besides Mrs. McBride several of
his friends were coming, and a special band of wonderfully talented
Tziganes, who were delighting Paris that year, had been engaged to play
to them. If only the weather should remain fine all would be well.