'I hear Prince Aribert has left,' said Theodore Racksole.
'Yes,' she assented. She said not a word about their interview.
Chapter Eight ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF THE
BARONESS
ON the following morning, just before lunch, a lady, accompanied
by a maid and a considerable quantity of luggage, came to the
Grand Babylon Hotel. She was a plump, little old lady, with white
hair and an old-fashioned bonnet, and she had a quaint, simple
smile of surprise at everything in general.
Nevertheless, she gave the impression of belonging to some
aristocracy, though not the English aristocracy. Her tone to her
maid, whom she addressed in broken English - the girl being
apparently English - was distinctly insolent, with the calm,
unconscious insolence peculiar to a certain type of Continental
nobility. The name on the lady's card ran thus: 'Baroness Zerlinski'.
She desired rooms on the third floor. It happened that Nella was in
the bureau.
'On the third floor, madam?' questioned Nella, in her best clerkly
manner.
'I did say on de tird floor,' said the plump little old lady.
'We have accommodation on the second floor.'
'I wish to be high up, out of de dust and in de light,' explained the
Baroness.
'We have no suites on the third floor, madam.'
'Never mind, no mattaire! Have you not two rooms that
communicate?'
Nella consulted her books, rather awkwardly.
'Numbers 122 and 123 communicate.
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