I thought it would be a new experience for you to go to bed with the wife of a notorious murderer.
And to tell you the truth, I thought she might fall for you.
I should laugh like a hyena if she has.
After all, you’re rather the same type as Berger, but a damned sight better-looking.”
Charley suddenly remembered a remark that Lydia had made when they were having supper together after the Midnight Mass.
He had not understood what she meant at the time, but now he did.
“It may surprise you to learn that she tumbled to that.
I’m afraid you won’t be able to laugh like a hyena.”
“Have you been together ever since I left you with her on Christmas Eve?”
“Yes.”
“It seems to agree with you.
You look all right.
A bit pale, perhaps.”
Charley tried not to look self-conscious.
He would not for the world have had Simon know that his relations with Lydia had been entirely platonic.
It would only have aroused his derisive laughter.
He would have looked upon Charley’s behaviour as despicably sentimental.
“I don’t think it was a very good joke to get me off with her without letting me know what I was in for,” said Charley.
Simon gave him a tortured smile.
“It appealed to my sense of humour.
It’ll be something to tell your parents when you go home.
Anyhow you’ve got nothing to grouse about.
It’s all panned out very well.
Olga knows her job and will give you a damned good time in that way, and she’s no fool; she’s read a lot and she can talk much more intelligently than most women.
It’ll be a liberal education, my boy.
D’you think she’s as much in love with her husband as ever she was?”
“I think so.”
“Curious, human nature is, isn’t it?
He was an awful rotter, you know.
I suppose you know why she’s at the Serail?
She wants to make enough money to pay for his escape; then she’ll join him in Brazil.”
Charley was disconcerted.
He had believed her when she told him that she was there because she wanted to atone for Robert’s sin, and even though the notion had seemed to him extravagant there was something about it that had strangely moved him.
It was a shock to think that she might have lied to him.
If what Simon said were true she had just been making a fool of him.
“I covered the trial for our paper, you know,” Simon went on.
“It caused rather a sensation in England because the fellow that Berger killed was an Englishman, and they gave it a lot of space.
It was a snip for me; I’d never been to a murder trial in France before and I was pretty keen to see one.
I’ve been to the Old Bailey, and I was curious to compare their methods with ours.
I wrote a very full account of it; I’ve got it here; I’ll give it you to read if you like.”
“Yes, I would.”
“The murder created a great stir in France.
You see, Robert Berger wasn’t an apache or anything like that.
He was by way of being a gent.
His people were very decent.
He was well-educated and he spoke English quite passably.
One of the papers called him the Gentleman Gangster and it caught on; it took the public fancy and made him quite a celebrity.
He was good-looking too, in his way, and young, only twenty-two, and that helped.
The women all went crazy over him.
God, the crush there was to get into the trial!