The last time he saved his life, too, and
Jules's."
"It was nothing," said the modest hero.
"It was nothing!" Liane echoed tragically. "You save my life twice, and
he calls it 'useful,' and you call it 'nothing!' My God! I tell you, I
find this English a funny language!"
"But if you will tell us about it..." Monk suggested, placing a chair
for her at one end of a small table on which was spread an appetising
cold supper.
Lanyard remarked that there were places laid for four. He had been
expected, then. Or had the fourth place been meant for Jules? One
inclined to credit the first theory. It seemed highly probable that
Liane should have telegraphed her intentions before leaving Paris.
Indeed, there was every evidence that she had. Neither Monk nor Phinuit
had betrayed the least surprise on seeing Lanyard; and Phinuit had not
even troubled to recognise the fiction which Liane had uttered in
accounting for him. It was very much as if he had said: That long-lost
brother stuff is all very well for the authorities, for entry in the
ship's papers if necessary; but it's wasted between ourselves, we
understand one another; so let's get down to brass tacks.
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