"Left Lacville?" Count Paul repeated, in almost as incredulous a tone as that in which Sylvia herself had said the words when the news had been first brought her. "Have you and she quarrelled, Mrs. Bailey? You permit?" He waited till she looked up and said listlessly, "Yes, please do," before lighting his cigarette. "Quarrelled? Oh, no! She has simply gone away without telling me!" The Comte de Virieu looked surprised, but not particularly sorry. "That's very strange," he said. "I should have thought your friend was not likely to leave Lacville for many weeks to come." His acute French mind had already glanced at all the sides of the situation, and he was surprised at the mixed feelings which filled his heart. With the Polish woman gone, his young English friend was not likely to stay on at such a place as Lacville alone. "But where has Madame Wolsky gone?" he asked quickly. "And why has she left? Surely she is coming back?" (Sylvia could certainly stay on a few days alone at Lacville, if her friend was coming back.) But what was this that Mrs. Bailey was saying in so plaintive a tone? "That's the extraordinary thing about it! I haven't the slightest idea where Anna is, or why she has left Lacville." In spite of herself her voice trembled. "She did not give me the slightest warning of what she was thinking of doing; in fact, only a few days ago, when we were talking of our future plans, I tried to persuade her to come back to England with me on a long visit." "Tell me all that happened," he said, sitting down and speaking in the eager, kindly way he seemed to keep for Sylvia alone. And then Sylvia told him. She described the coming of the messenger, her journey to the Pension Malfait, and she repeated, as far as was possible, the exact words of her friend's curiously-worded, abrupt letter to Madame Malfait. "They all think," she said at last, "that Anna went to the Casino and lost all her money--both the money she made, and the money she brought here; and that then, not liking to tell even me anything about it, she made up her mind to go away." "They _all_ think this?" repeated Count Paul, meaningly. "Whom do you mean by _all_, Mrs. Bailey?" "I mean the people at the Pension Malfait, and the Wachners--" "Then you saw the Wachners to-day?" "I met Madame Wachner as I was going to the Pension Malfait," said Sylvia, "and she went there with me. You see, the Wachners asked Anna to have supper with them yesterday, and they waited for her ever so long, but she never came. That makes it clear that she must have left Lacville some time in the early afternoon. I wish--I cannot help wishing--that I had not gone into Paris yesterday, Count Paul." And then suddenly she realised how ungracious her words must sound.