Read Online Gale Warning by Dornford Yates - Free Book Online Page B

mean.”
    “That’s right, sir. He is a reverend, though he doesn’t wear clerical clothes. I don’t think he practises. He’s something in the City, I think. He lives at Virginia Water and comes up to Town most days.”

4:  On Parade
    My instructions were clear.
     
    Give notice at once and leave on Saturday. Say that you cannot endure an office life.
    Continue to go to the club – from half-past six each evening till seven o’clock. Go for the last time on Friday.
    Leave London for Paris on Tuesday and travel by train. (You must be prepared to stay abroad for some time.) Go to the Hotel and engage a small suite. Say that Madame will arrive the following day.
    Go to Le Bourget on Wednesday to meet the midday plane. Madame will come by that, and you are to greet her exactly as you would greet a girlfriend for whom you had taken the rooms. This is most important. If she can play up, so can you.
    From that time on you two will work together, and so her orders are yours. But here is a special order for you alone. ‘She is to talk and to drive, and you are to keep her straight.’
     
    I will not set out my emotions, for they may be better imagined than written down: but I was so much excited that I could hardly think straight, and I had to take hold of myself lest my friends in Sermon Square should find my demeanour curious and wonder what was afoot. By strict application to business, I managed, I think, to conceal the elation I felt, but I must confess I was thankful when Saturday came, not only because I was stamping to get to France, but because I was sick and tired of deceiving those honest souls.
    On Monday, as may be believed, I had a full day, for, although I had a passport, I had no more than ten hours in which to provide for an absence of several months: however, I did it somehow, and after packing till dawn, I caught the Golden Arrow and slept most of the way.
    I shall always remember that evening, for Paris was warmer than London and summer had really come in and the world seemed big with promise, and business disguised as pleasure was in the air. The day which should have been ending seemed to have taken a second lease of life, and people appeared to be coming, instead of going away. The streets might have a foyer – between two acts of some popular musical play, and in view of the part which I was about to enact, I do not think I could have demanded a more congenial setting for my entrance upon the stage.
    The hotel was retired and private: its hall was empty and I could see no lounge: but the suites I was shown were attractive beyond belief, while the address of the staff, from the manager down to the pages, was irreproachable. No rake’s progress was ever so dignified – a fact, I may say, which afforded me great relief, for though I was resolved to ignore it, I had in my heart been dreading the knowing complacence with which I was sure I should meet. In spite of the manners and customs prevailing today, I did not relish the notion of being credited with a conquest which in fact I had not made; still less did I like the idea of parading Audrey Nuneham as the victim of my desires: but the style of the place was so good and the deference shown to my orders was so correct that, so far as that house was concerned, I never deplored the impression which we were bound to convey.
    That night I dined in my suite and, after strolling awhile, went early to bed. The next morning I walked about Paris until it was time for lunch: and after that I ordered a private car, which carried me out to Le Bourget by half-past two.
    As a special favour, for which I fought very hard, I was allowed on the apron on which passengers alight, and from there, at ten minutes to three, I saw the aeroplane land.
    As her pilot taxied over, I began to regret my insistence on such a conspicuous place, for a number of less-favoured people were looking on and, as it were, making an audience, whilst I had the stage to myself. My nerves were