are
rumours that the Concession may be withdrawn from the Casino--that would
be terrible, some say it would kill Lacville! It would be all the same to
me, I should always find work elsewhere. But it makes everyone eager to
sell--those, I mean, who have land at Lacville. There are others,"
continued the man--he had turned round on his seat, and the horse was
going at a foot's pace--"who declare that it would be far better for the
town--that there would be a more solid population established here--you
understand, Mesdames, what I mean? The Lacville tradesmen would be as
pleased, quite as pleased, or so some of them say; but, all the same,
they are selling their land!"

When the two friends finally got back to the Hotel de l'Horloge, Sylvia
Bailey found that a letter, which had not been given to her that morning,
contained the news that the English friends whom she had been expecting
to join in Switzerland the following week had altered their plans, and
were no longer going abroad.

CHAPTER V

Sylvia could hardly have said how it came about that she found herself
established in the Villa du Lac only a week after her first visit to
Lacville! But so it was, and she found the change a delightful one from
every point of view.

Paris had suddenly become intolerably hot. As is the way with the Siren
city when June is half-way through, the asphalt pavements radiated heat;
the air was heavy, laden with strange, unpleasing odours; and even the
trees, which form such delicious oases of greenery in the older quarters
of the town were powdered with grey dust.

Also Anna Wolsky had become restless--quite unlike what she had been
before that hour spent by her and by Sylvia Bailey in the Club at
Lacville; she had gone back there three times, refusing, almost angrily,
the company of her English friend. For a day or two Sylvia had thought
seriously of returning to England, but she had let her pretty house at
Market Dalling till the end of August; and, in spite of the heat, she did
not wish to leave France.

Towards the end of the week Anna suddenly exclaimed:

"After all, why shouldn't you come out to Lacville, Sylvia? You can't go
to Switzerland alone, and you certainly don't want to go on staying in
Paris as Paris is now! I do not ask you to go to the Pension Malfait, but
come to the Villa du Lac. You will soon make acquaintances in that sort
of place--I mean," she added, "in your hotel, not in the town. We could
always