"
"Your trust shall not be misplaced. When I take an employer's pay I
serve him faithfully and to the best of my power," he said with an
engaging frankness that won me completely.
Lord! Lord! what liars men are and what fools! I might have guessed
how much reliance was to be placed upon a man who, to my certain
knowledge, was serving two masters.
Why should he be more faithful to my lord than to the Colonel?
CHAPTER XXII.
The rest of the first day at Aix passed without any important
incident. I was a trifle surprised that the Colonel did not put in an
appearance; but it was explained by l'Echelle, whom I met by
appointment later in the day. I understood from him that the Colonel
had decided to remain down in the town, where he had many friends, and
where he was more in the thick of the fun. For Aix-les-Bains, as every
one knows, is a lively little place in the season, and the heart and
centre of it all is the Casino. The Colonel had established himself in
a hotel almost next door, and ran up against me continually that
afternoon and evening, as I wandered about now under the trees
listening to the band, now at the baccarat table, where I occasionally
staked a few _jetons_ of the smaller values.
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