Отель «Гранд Вавилон» / The Grand Babylon hotel

I forget the exact acreage, but I remember that once Prince Aribert and myself walked across it and back again in a single day.’

�Then the Grand Duke cannot travel very far within his own dominions? You may say that the sun does set on his empire?’

�It does,’ said Dimmock.

�Unless the weather is cloudy,’ Nella put in. �Is the Grand Duke content always to stay at home?’

�On the contrary, he is a great traveller, much more so than Prince Aribert. I may tell you, what no one knows at present, outside this hotel, that his Royal Highness the Grand Duke, with a small suite, will be here to-morrow.

’

�In London?’ asked Nella.

�Yes.’

�In this hotel?’

�Yes.’

�Oh! How lovely!’

�That is why your humble servant is here to-night—a sort of advance guard.’

�But I understood,’ Racksole said, �that you were—er—attached to Prince Aribert, the uncle.’

�I am. Prince Aribert will also be here.

The Grand Duke and the Prince have business about important investments connected with the Grand Duke’s marriage settlement… In the highest quarters, you understand.’

�For so discreet a person,’ thought Racksole, �you are fairly communicative.’ Then he said aloud: �Shall we go out on the terrace?’

As they crossed the dining-room Jules stopped Mr Dimmock and handed him a letter. �Just come, sir, by messenger,’ said Jules.

Nella dropped behind for a second with her father.

�Leave me alone with this boy a little—there’s a dear parent,’ she whispered in his ear.

�I am a mere cypher, an obedient nobody,’ Racksole replied, pinching her arm surreptitiously. �Treat me as such. Use me as you like. I will go and look after my hotel.’ And soon afterwards he disappeared.

Nella and Mr Dimmock sat together on the terrace, sipping iced drinks. They made a handsome couple, bowered amid plants which blossomed at the command of a Chelsea wholesale florist.

People who passed by remarked privately that from the look of things there was the beginning of a romance in that conversation. Perhaps there was, but a more intimate acquaintance with the character of Nella Racksole would have been necessary in order to predict what precise form that romance would take.

Jules himself served the liquids, and at ten o’clock he brought another note.