"And he may not come, after all." Her self-confidence sufficiently convinced Loo, who was always ready to leave something to chance.

But Colville shook his head.
It thus came about that sundry persons of title and importance who had been invited to come to the Villa Cordouan after dinner for a little music found the English banker complacently installed in the largest chair, with a shirt-front evading the constraint of an abnormal waistcoat, and a sleepy chin drooping surreptitiously toward it.
"He is my banker from Paris," whispered Mrs.St.Pierre Lawrence to one and another.

"He knows nothing, and so far as I am aware, is no politician--merely a banker, you understand.

Leave him alone and he will go to sleep." During the three weeks which Loo Barebone had spent very pleasantly at the Villa Cordouan, Mrs.St.Pierre Lawrence had provided music and light refreshment for her friends on several occasions.

And each evening the drawing-room, which was not a small one, had been filled to overflowing.