CHAPTER FOURHaving arranged for everybody to be seated at the card tables, the Comtesse realised that the Earl was sitting alone at the far end of the salon.
She walked towards him, saying as she reached him,
“Don’t get up. I presume you do not wish to play cards.”
“I would much rather talk to you,” the Earl replied.
“That is what I have been hoping for,” the Comtesse answered.
They sat down on the sofa and she said in her soft voice,
“It was so kind of you to come. I have been so desperately worried and could not think who I could turn to. Then I remembered you.”
“I am flattered,” the Earl answered. “But I don’t like you to be upset or worried. You have always seemed to me to be such a serene person.”
“That is what I try to be,” the Comtesse replied, “but things are difficult and
