Castles in the Air eBook

Baroness Emma Orczy
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 235 pages of information about Castles in the Air.

Castles in the Air eBook

Baroness Emma Orczy
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 235 pages of information about Castles in the Air.

That very same evening I interviewed the concierge at No. 65 Rue des Pyramides.  From him I learned that Mr. Farewell lived on a very small income on the top floor of the house, that his household consisted of a housekeeper who cooked and did the work of the apartment for him, and an odd-job man who came every morning to clean boots, knives, draw water and carry up fuel from below.  I also learned that there was a good deal of gossip in the house anent the presence in Mr. Farewell’s bachelor establishment of a young and beautiful girl, whom he tried to keep a virtual prisoner under his eye.

The next morning, dressed in a shabby blouse, alpaca cap, and trousers frayed out round the ankles, I—­Hector Ratichon, the confidant of kings—­was lounging under the porte-cochere of No. 65 Rue des Pyramides.  I was watching the movements of a man, similarly attired to myself, as he crossed and recrossed the courtyard to draw water from the well or to fetch wood from one of the sheds, and then disappeared up the main staircase.

A casual, tactful inquiry of the concierge assured me that that man was indeed in the employ of Mr. Farewell.

I waited as patiently and inconspicuously as I could, and at ten o’clock I saw that my man had obviously finished his work for the morning and had finally come down the stairs ready to go home.  I followed him.

I will not speak of the long halt in the cabaret du Chien Noir, where he spent an hour and a half in the company of his friends, playing dominoes and drinking eau-de-vie whilst I had perforce to cool my heels outside.  Suffice it to say that I did follow him to his house just behind the fish-market, and that half an hour later, tired out but triumphant, having knocked at his door, I was admitted into the squalid room which he occupied.

He surveyed me with obvious mistrust, but I soon reassured him.

“My friend Mr. Farewell has recommended you to me,” I said with my usual affability.  “I was telling him just awhile ago that I needed a man to look after my office in the Rue Daunou of a morning, and he told me that in you I would find just the man I wanted.”

“Hm!” grunted the fellow, very sullenly I thought.  “I work for Farewell in the mornings.  Why should he recommend me to you?  Am I not giving satisfaction?”

“Perfect satisfaction,” I rejoined urbanely; “that is just the point.  Mr. Farewell desires to do you a good turn seeing that I offered to pay you twenty sous for your morning’s work instead of the ten which you are getting from him.”

I saw his eyes glisten at mention of the twenty sous.

“I’d best go and tell him then that I am taking on your work,” he said; and his tone was no longer sullen now.

“Quite unnecessary,” I rejoined.  “I arranged everything with Mr. Farewell before I came to you.  He has already found someone else to do his work, and I shall want you to be at my office by seven o’clock to-morrow morning.  And,” I added, for I am always cautious and judicious, and I now placed a piece of silver in his hand, “here are the first twenty sous on account.”

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Project Gutenberg
Castles in the Air from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.