Lydia lit a cigarette before she answered.
“Marcel, the fat man who runs the place we were at last night, introduced me to two men there and I’ve made an appointment to meet them at the Palette this morning.
We couldn’t talk in all that crowd.”
“Oh!”
He was too discreet to ask who they were.
“Marcel’s in touch with Cayenne and St. Laurent.
He often gets news.
That’s why I wanted to go there.
They landed at St. Nazaire last week.”
“Who?
The two men?
Are they escaped convicts?”
“No.
They’ve served their sentence.
They got their passage paid by the Salvation Army.
They knew Robert.”
She hesitated a moment.
“If you want to, you can come with me.
They’ve got no money.
They’d be grateful if you gave them a little.”
“All right.
Yes, I’d like to come.”
“They seem very decent fellows.
One of them doesn’t look more than thirty now.
Marcel told me he was a cook and he was sent out for killing another man in the kitchen of the restaurant where he worked.
I don’t know what the other had done.
You’d better go and have your bath.”
She went over to the dressing-table and looked at herself in the glass.
“Funny, I wonder why my eyelids are swollen.
To look at me you’d think I’d been crying, and you know I haven’t, don’t you?”
“Perhaps it was that smoky atmosphere last night.
By George! you could have cut it with a knife.”
“I’ll ring down for some ice.
They’ll be all right after we’ve been out in the air for five minutes.”
The Palette was empty when they got there.
Late breakfasters had had their coffee and gone, and it was too early for anyone to have come in for an aperitif before luncheon.
They sat in a corner, near the window, so that they could look out into the street.
They waited for several minutes.
“There they are,” said Lydia.
Charley looked out and saw two men walking past.
They glanced in, hesitated a moment and strolled on, then came back; Lydia gave them a smile, but they took no notice of her; they stood still, looking up and down the street, and then doubtfully at the cafe.
It looked as though they couldn’t make up their minds to enter.
Their manner was timid and furtive.
They said a few words to one another and the younger of the two gave a hasty anxious glance behind him.
The other seemed on a sudden to force himself to a decision and walked towards the door.
His friend followed quickly.
Lydia gave them a wave and a smile when they came in.
They still took no notice.
They looked round stealthily, as though to assure themselves that they were safe, and then, the first with averted eyes, the other fixing the ground, came up.
Lydia shook hands with them and introduced Charley.