"Do you play roulette?"

"No. Never been at the tables."

"Then I must teach you," said Olive gaily.

"Delighted!"

After the telephone conversation, Larssen went straight to No. 8, Rue
Laffitte. He had wired the night before to London to have a secretary
sent over--Sylvester, his usual confidential man, if the latter were
back at business; if not, another subordinate he named. Catching the
nine o'clock train from Charing Cross, the secretary would arrive in
Paris about five in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Larssen, had to make his
search for Rivière in person.

The business of a financier differs radically from a mercantile
business on the point of staff. The main work of negotiation can only be
carried out by the head of the firm himself, as a rule, and the routine
work for subordinates is small, except when a public company flotation
is being made. Matheson had found that his Paris office needed only a
manager, Coulter, and a couple of clerks, one English and one French.
Coulter was a steady-going, reliable man of forty odd, extremely
trustworthy and not too imaginative.

He knew Lars Larssen, of course, and received him deferentially.

"What can I have the pleasure of doing for you, sir?"

"I want the address of Mr John Rivière. Or rather, Mrs Matheson wants