“Madame Wachner told me that quite a lot of money was found in his room,” said Sylvia quickly.

“No, that is not true.  About four hundred francs were found in his bed-room.  That was all.  I fancy the police made themselves rather unpleasant to Monsieur Wachner.  The Russian Embassy made inquiries, and it seemed so odd to the French authorities that the poor fellow could not be identified.  They found no passport, no papers of any sort—­”

“Have you a passport?” asked Sylvia.  “Madame Wachner asked me if I had one.  But I’ve never even seen a passport!”

“No,” said Anna, “I have not got a passport now.  I once had one, but I lost it.  One does not require such a thing in a civilised country!  But a Russian must always have a passport, it is an absolute law in Russia.  And the disappearance of that young man’s passport was certainly strange—­in fact, the whole affair was mysterious.”

“It must have been terrible for Monsieur and Madame Wachner,” said Sylvia thoughtfully.

“Oh yes, very disagreeable indeed!  Luckily he is entirely absorbed in his absurd systems, and she is a very cheerful woman.”

“Yes, indeed she is!” Sylvia could not help smiling.  “I am glad we have got to know them, Anna.  It is rather mournful when one knows no one at all in a place of this kind.”

And Anna agreed, indifferently.

CHAPTER X

And then there began a series of long cloudless days for Sylvia Bailey.  For the first time she felt as if she was seeing life, and such seeing was very pleasant to her.

Not in her wildest dreams, during the placid days of her girlhood and brief married life, had she conceived of so interesting and so exhilarating an existence as that which she was now leading!  And this was perhaps owing in a measure to the fact that there is, if one may so express it, a spice of naughtiness in life as led at Lacville.

In a mild, a very mild, way Sylvia Bailey had fallen a victim to the Goddess of Play.  She soon learned to look forward to the hours she and Anna Wolsky spent each day at the baccarat tables.  But, unlike Anna, Sylvia was never tempted to risk a greater sum on that dangerous green cloth than she could comfortably afford to lose, and perhaps just because this was so, on the whole she won money rather than lost it.

A certain change had come over the relations of the two women.  They still met daily, if only at the Casino, and they occasionally took a walk or a drive together, but Madame Wolsky—­and Sylvia Bailey felt uneasy and growing concern that it was so—­now lived for play, and play alone.

Absorbed in the simple yet fateful turns of the game, Anna would remain silent for hours, immersed in calculations, and scarcely aware of what went on round her.  She and Monsieur Wachner—­“L’Ami Fritz,” as even Sylvia had fallen into the way of calling him—­seemed scarcely alive unless they were standing or sitting round a baccarat table, putting down or taking up the shining gold pieces which they treated as carelessly as if they were counters.