By doing one's work one obtains money; by indulging and looking after a woman one spends it; so the last is much more noble and ideal than the first."
Jane laughed.
"Oh, well," she said, "I think I'd rather be regarded as a mere luxury and self-indulgence than be regarded sternly as a first duty.
I'd rather a man felt that he was enjoying himself looking after me than that he should feel I was a duty to be attended to."
"No one, mademoiselle, would be likely to feel that with you."
Jane blushed slightly at the earnestness of the young man's tone.
He went on talking quickly: "I have only been in England once before. It was very interesting to me the other day at the - inquest, you call it? - to study three young and charming women, all so different from one another."
"What did you think of us all?" asked Jane, amused.
"That Lady Horbury - bah, I know her type well. It is very exotic, very, very expensive - you see it sitting round the baccarat table - the soft face, the hard expression - and you know - you know so well what it will be like in, say, fifteen years.
She lives for sensation, that one. For high play, perhaps for drugs. Au fond, she is uninteresting!"
"And Miss Kerr?"
"Ah, she is very, very English.
She is the kind that any shopkeeper on the Riviera will give credit to - they are very discerning, our shopkeepers.
Her clothes are very well cut, but rather like a man's.
She walks about as though she owns the earth; she is not conceited about it; she is just an Englishwoman.
She knows which department of England different people come from.
It is true; I have heard ones like her in Egypt.
'What?
The Etceteras are here?
The Yorkshire Etceteras?
Oh, the Shropshire Etceteras.'"
His mimicry was good. Jane laughed at the drawling, well-bred tones.
"And then, me," she said.
"And then you.
And I say to myself,
'How nice, how very nice it would be if I were to see her again one day.' And here I am sitting opposite you.
The gods arrange things very well sometimes."
Jane said: "You're an archaeologist, aren't you? You dig up things."
And she listened with keen attention while Jean Dupont talked of his work. Jane gave a little sigh at last.
"You've been in so many countries. You've seen so much. It all sounds so fascinating.
And I shall never go anywhere or see anything."
"You would like that? To go abroad? To see wild parts of the earth? You would not be able to get your hair waved, remember."
"It waves by itself," said Jane, laughing.
She looked up at the clock and hastily summoned the waitress for her bill.
Jean Dupont said with a little embarrassment: "Mademoiselle, I wonder if you would permit - as I have told you, I return to France tomorrow - if you would dine with me tonight."
"I'm so sorry. I can't.
I'm dining with someone."
"Ah! I am sorry - very sorry. You will come again to Paris, soon?"
"I don't expect so."
"And me, I do not know when I shall be in London again!
It is sad!"
He stood a moment, holding Jane's hand in his.
"I shall hope to see you again, very much," he said, and sounded as though he meant it.
Chapter 14
At about the time that Jane was leaving Antoine's, Norman Gale was saying in a hearty professional tone:
"Just a little tender, I'm afraid. Tell me if I hurt you."
His expert hand guided the electric drill.
"There. That's all over... Miss Ross."
Miss Ross was immediately at his elbow, stirring a minute white concoction on a slab.
Norman Gale completed his filling and said: "Let me see, it's next Tuesday you're coming for those others?"