'
'Why are you not surprised?'
'Oh!' said Babylon, 'it is such an obvious dodge - so easy to carry
out. As for me, I took special care never to involve myself in these
affairs. I knew they existed; I somehow felt that they existed. But I
also felt that they lay outside my sphere. My business was to
provide board and lodging of the most sumptuous kind to those
who didn't mind paying for it; and I did my business. If anything
else went on in the hotel, under the rose, I long determined to
ignore it unless it should happen to be brought before my notice;
and it never was brought before my notice. However, I admit that
there is a certain pleasurable excitement in this kind of affair and
doubtless you have experienced that.'
'I have,' said Racksole simply, 'though I believe you are laughing at
me.'
'By no means,' Babylon replied. 'Now what, if I may ask the
question, is going to be your next step?'
'That is just what I desire to know myself,' said Theodore
Racksole.
'Well,' said Babylon, after a pause, 'let us begin. In the first place, it
is possible you may be interested to hear that I happened to see
Jules to-day.'
'You did!' Racksole remarked with much calmness. 'Where?'
'Well, it was early this morning, in Paris, just before I left there.
The meeting was quite accidental, and Jules seemed rather
surprised at meeting me. He respectfully inquired where I was
going, and I said that I was going to Switzerland.
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