Project Gutenberg's The Chink in the Armour, by Marie Belloc Lowndes

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Title: The Chink in the Armour

Author: Marie Belloc Lowndes

Release Date: September 10, 2005 [EBook #16677]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE CHINK IN THE ARMOUR

BY MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES

AUTHOR OF "THE END OF HER HONEYMOON," "THE LODGER," Etc.

1912

NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP

"_But there is one chink in the chain armour of civilized communities.
Society is conducted on the assumption that murder will not be
committed._"--

The Spectator.

THE CHINK IN THE ARMOUR

CHAPTER I

A small, shiny, pink card lay on the round table in Sylvia Bailey's
sitting-room at the Hotel de l'Horloge in Paris.

She had become quite accustomed to finding one or more cards--cards from
dressmakers, cards from corset-makers, cards from hairdressers--lying on
her sitting-room table, but there had never been a card quite like this
card.

Although it was pink, it looked more like a visiting-card than a
tradesman's advertisement, and she took it up with some curiosity. It was
inscribed "Madame Cagliostra," and underneath the name were written the
words "_Diseuse de la Bonne Aventure_," and then, in a corner, in very
small black letters, the address, "5, Rue Jolie, Montmartre."

A fortune-teller's card? What an extraordinary thing!

Like many pretty, prosperous, idle women, Sylvia was rather
superstitious. Not long before this, her first visit to Paris, a London
acquaintance had taken her to see a noted palmist named "Pharaoh," in
Bond Street. She had paid her guinea willingly enough, but the result had
vaguely disappointed her, and she had had the feeling, all the time she
was with him, that the man was not really reading her hand.

True, "Pharaoh" had told her she was going abroad, and at that time she
had