Mrs. Vandemeyer smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

"The price, at any rate, would have to be enormous," she said
lightly. "It would be beyond the power of anyone but a
millionaire to pay."

"Ah!" snarled the Russian. "You see, I was right!"

"My dear Boris, can you not take a joke?"

"Was it a joke?"

"Of course."

"Then all I can say is that your ideas of humour are peculiar, my
dear Rita."

Mrs. Vandemeyer smiled.

"Let us not quarrel, Boris. Touch the bell. We will have some
drinks."

Tuppence beat a hasty retreat. She paused a moment to survey
herself in Mrs. Vandemeyer's long glass, and be sure that nothing
was amiss with her appearance. Then she answered the bell
demurely.

The conversation that she had overheard, although interesting in
that it proved beyond doubt the complicity of both Rita and
Boris, threw very little light on the present preoccupations. The