She was calm, smiling, herself again.
"An interesting story, Monsieur Vaucher, is it not? Permit me to give
you a light for your cigarette."
She deftly rolled up a spill, lighted it at the candle, and held it
toward him. He leaned forward till the flame caught the tip of the
cigarette he held between his lips.
Then she rose unexpectedly to her feet. "And now I must leave you all.
Please--I need no one to escort me."
Before one could realize it, she was gone. Mr. Satterthwaite would have
hurried out after her, but he was arrested by a startled oath from the
Frenchman.
"_A thousand thunders!_"
He was staring at the half-burned spill which the Countess had dropped
on the table. He unrolled it.
"_Mon Dieu!_" he muttered. "A fifty-thousand-franc banknote. You
understand? Her winnings tonight. All that she has in the world.
And she lighted my cigarette with it! Because she was too proud to
accept--pity. Ah! proud, she was always proud as the Devil. She is
unique--wonderful."
He sprang up from his seat and darted out. Mr. Satterthwaite and Mr.
Quin had also risen. The waiter approached Franklin Rudge.
"_La note, Monsieur_," he observed unemotionally.
Mr. Quin rescued it from him quickly.
"I feel kind of lonesome, Elizabeth," remarked Franklin Rudge. "These
foreigners--they beat the band! I don't understand them. What's it all
mean, anyhow?"
He looked across at her. "Gee, it's good to look at anything so hundred
percent American as you." His voice took on the plaintive note of a
small child. "These foreigners are so _odd_."
They thanked Mr. Quin and went out into the night together. Mr. Quin
picked up his change and smiled across at Mr. Satterthwaite, who was
preening himself like a contented bird.
"Well," said the latter. "That's all gone off splendidly. Our pair of
lovebirds will be all right now."
"Which ones?" asked Mr. Quin.
"Oh," said Mr. Satterthwaite, taken aback, "Oh! yes, well, I suppose
you are right, allowing for the Latin point of view and all that--"
He looked dubious.
Mr. Quin smiled, and a stained-glass panel behind him invested him for
just a moment in a motley garment of colored light.