The Project Gutenberg EBook of At the Villa Rose, by A. E. W. Mason

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Title: At the Villa Rose

Author: A. E. W. Mason

Posting Date: September 11, 2009 [EBook #4745]
Release Date: December, 2003
First Posted: March 12, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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AT THE VILLA ROSE

A.E.W. Mason

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. SUMMER LIGHTNING
II. A CRY FOR HELP
III. PERRICHET'S STORY
IV. AT THE VILLA
V. IN THE SALON
VI. HELENE VAUQUIER'S EVIDENCE
VII. A STARTLING DISCOVERY
VIII. THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP
IX. MME. DAUVRAY'S MOTOR-CAR
X. NEWS FROM GENEVA
XI. THE UNOPENED LETTER
XII. THE ALUMINIUM FLASK
XIII. IN THE HOUSE AT GENEVA
XIV. MR. RICARDO IS BEWILDERED
XV. CELIA'S STORY
XVI. THE FIRST MOVE
XVII. THE AFTERNOON OF TUESDAY
XVIII. THE SEANCE
XIX. HELENE EXPLAINS
XX. THE GENEVA ROAD
XXI. HANAUD EXPLAINS

AT THE VILLA ROSE

CHAPTER I

SUMMER LIGHTNING

It was Mr. Ricardo's habit as soon as the second week of August came
round to travel to Aix-les-Bains, in Savoy, where for five or six weeks
he lived pleasantly. He pretended to take the waters in the morning, he
went for a ride in his motor-car in the afternoon, he dined at the
Cercle in the evening, and spent an hour or two afterwards in the
baccarat-rooms at the Villa des Fleurs. An enviable, smooth life
without a doubt, and it is certain that his acquaintances envied him.
At the same time, however, they laughed at him and, alas with some
justice; for he was an exaggerated person. He was to be construed in
the comparative. Everything in his life was a trifle overdone, from the
fastidious arrangement of his neckties to the feminine nicety of his
little dinner-parties. In age Mr. Ricardo was approaching the fifties;
in condition he was a widower--a state greatly to his liking, for he
avoided at once the irksomeness of marriage and the reproaches justly
levelled at the bachelor; finally, he was rich, having am