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Amsterdam in a few hours. They could step into their car in the morning and be in Bienvenu by

nightfall. "Really, it'll be about the same as commuting," said Irma.

What astonished him was the zest with which she set to work, and the speed with which she put

the job through. She was the daughter of J. Paramount Barnes, and all her life she had been used

to hearing decisions made and orders given. As soon as Lanny gave his consent she seated herself

at the telephone and put in a call for Jerry Pendleton in Cannes. "How's business?" she asked,

and when the familial cheery voice informed her that it was dead and buried, she asked if he

would like to have a job. He answered that he would jump for it, and she said: "Jump for the

night express, and don't miss your hold."

"But darling!" objected Lanny. "He doesn't know anything about running a palace!"

"He's honest, he's lived in France for fifteen years, and employed some help. It won't take

him long to learn the ropes."

When the red-headed ex-lieutenant from Kansas arrived, she put it up to him. He would

become steward, or perhaps Controleur-General, like Herr Meissner in Stubendorf. "Put on lots

of side," she advised, "and be taken at your own valuation." He would engage a first-class major

domo and a butler who would know what was done and what wasn't. He would be paid enough

so that he could have his own car, and run down to see his family now and then.

Jerry Pendleton had once undertaken to tutor Lanny Budd without any preparation, and now

he was taking another such chance. No time even to read a book on the duties of a

Controleur-General! Go right to work; for the "season" was soon to begin, and Irma wanted

what she wanted when she wanted it. The elaborate inventory of the contents of the palace was

made and checked and signed on every page; the lease was signed, the money paid, and the keys

delivered. Emily's butler had a brother who was also in the profession, and knew everything there

was to know about Paris society. Also he knew servants, enough for an emergency staff, and

they came and took off the dust-covers and got things ready with American speed.

Irma and her prince consort and her Controleur-General moved into their new home, and it

was but a few hours before the newspapers had got word of it, and the doorbell was ringing and

the flashlight bulbs of the photographers exploding. Lanny saw that his wife was once more

getting her money's worth; they were back in cafe society, with the spotlight centered upon

them. Paris was going to have a new hostess, a famous one. The marble steps of the palace were

worn by the feet of chauffeurs and lackeys leaving calling cards with distinguished names on

them, and the side entrance bell was ringing to announce the presence of bijoutiers and

couturiers and marchands de modes.

Irma said: "Your mother must come and help us." So Lanny wrote at once, and that old war-

mare said "Ha, ha!" and scented the battle afar off. It would have been a mortal affront to

invite one mother-in-law and not the other, so Irma sent a cablegram to Shore Acres, and that

older and more experienced charger dropped all her plans and took the first steamer. Even

Emily came to town for a few days, bringing her calling lists with the secret symbols. Feathers

sat by her side with a stenographer's notebook, collecting pearls of information which dropped

from the lips of the most esteemed of Franco-American hostesses.

In short, Lanny Budd found himself in the midst of a social whirlwind; and it would have been

cruelly unkind of him not to like it. Once more the ladies were in charge of his life, and what they

considered proper was what he did. He listened to their talk and he met the people they

brought for him to meet; if he wanted to play the piano it had to be done at odd moments

between social engagements; while, as for sitting down in a splendid library and burying

himself in a book—well, it was just too selfish, too solitary, too inconsiderate of all those

persons who wanted to pay their attentions to the lessee of so much magnificence.

IX

The election results had given a tremendous jolt to the conservative elements in France. The

party of Jesse Blackless had gained only two seats, but the party of Leon Blum had gained

seventeen, while the "Radicals" had gained forty-eight. To be sure that word didn't mean what

it meant in the United States; it was the party of the peasants and the small business men, but

it was expected to combine with the Socialists, and France would have a government of the left,

badly tainted with pacifism, and likely to make dangerous concessions to the Germans. The

groups which had been governing France, the representatives of big industry and finance

capital, popularly known as the mur d'argent, the "wall of money," were in a state of great

alarm.

One of Lanny's duties in Paris was to keep in touch with his exfamily, the de Bruynes. Having

now a suitable home of his own, he invited them to dinner and they came, father, two sons,

and the young wife of Denis fils. Irma hadn't met them before, but had heard a lot about

them, and felt herself being fascinatingly French when she welcomed the family of her

husband's former mistress. They, for their part, appeared to take it as a matter of course,

which made it still more French. They were people of high culture and agreeable manners, so

Irma was pleased to assist in carrying out the death-bed promises which Lanny had made to

the woman who had done so much to prepare him to be a good and satisfactory husband.

They talked about politics and the state of the world. That was what this splendid home was

for; so that Lanny wouldn't have to meet his friends in crowded cafes, where they were jostled

and could hardly hear one another's voices, but might sit in comfort and express themselves

with leisure and dignity. It was Irma's hope that the things said would take on something of

the tone of the surroundings; and certainly this appeared to be true with the de Bruynes, who

were Nationalists, all four of them, and in a state of great concern as to the trend of the

country and its position in the world.

Said the proprietor of a great fleet of taxicabs, speaking with some hesitation to a hostess

from overseas: "I am afraid that the people of your country do not have a clear realization of

the position in which they have placed my country."

"Do feel at liberty to speak freely, Monsieur," replied Irma, in her most formal French.

"There is a natural barrier which alone can preserve this land from the invasion of

barbarians, and that is the River Rhein. It was our intention to hold and fortify it, but your

President Veelson"— so they called him, ending with their sharp nasal "n"—"your President

Veelson forced us back from that boundary, onto ground which is almost indefensible, no

matter how hard we may try with our Maginot line. We made that concession because of your

President's pledge of a protective agreement against Germany; but your Congress ignored that

agreement, and so today we stand well-nigh defenseless. Now your President Oovay has declared

a moratorium on reparations, so that chapter is at an end—and we have received almost

nothing."

Lanny wanted to say: "You received twenty-five billions of francs under the Dawes plan,

and the products have glutted the world markets." But he had learned in Denis's home that it

was futile to argue with him, and it would be no less so in the palace of the Duc de

Belleaumont, one of Denis's financial associates.

"You do not feel that there is any possibility of trusting the German Republic?" inquired

Irma, trying hard to perfect her political education.

"When one says Germany today, Madame, one means Prussia; and to these people good faith

is a word of mockery. For such men as Thyssen and Hugenberg, and for the Jewish money-

lenders, the name 'Republic' is a form of camouflage. I speak frankly, because it is all in the

family, as it were."

"Assuredly," said the hostess.

"Every concession that we make is met by further demands. We have withdrawn from the

Rheinland, and no longer have any hold upon them, so they smile up their sleeves and go on

with their rearming. They waited, as you have seen, until after our elections, so as not to alarm

us; then, seeing the victory of the left, they overthrow their Catholic Chancellor, and we see a

Cabinet of the Barons, as it is so well named. If there is a less trustworthy man in all Europe

than Franz von Papen, I would not know where to seek him."

Irma perceived that you might invite a French Nationalist to the most magnificent of homes

and serve him the best of dinners, but you would not thereby make him entirely happy.

Practicing her new role of salonniere, she brought the young people into the conversation; but

this succeeded no better, for it turned out that Charlot, the young engineer, had joined the

Croix de Feu, one of the patriotic organizations which did not propose to surrender la patrie

either to the Reds or to the Prussians. The Croix de Feu used the technique of banners and

uniforms and marching and singing as did the Fascists of Italy and the Nazis of Germany; but

Lanny said: "I'm afraid, Charlot, you won't get so far, because you don't make so many

promises to the workers."

"They tell the people falsehoods," said the young Frenchman, haughtily; "but we are men of

honor."

"Ah, yes," sighed his old friend; "but how far does that go in politics?"

"In this corrupt republic, no distance at all; but we have set out to make France a home for

men who mean what they say".

Lanny spoke no more. It made him sad to see his two foster sons —they were supposed to be

something like that—going the road of Fascism; but there was nothing he could do about it. He

knew that their mother had shared these tendencies. They were French patriots, and he

couldn't make them internationalists, or what he called "good Europeans."

X

Having had such a dose of reaction, he had to have one of hope. He said to Irma: "I really

ought to call on Leon Blum, and perhaps take him out to lunch. Would you care to come

along?"

"But Lanny," she exclaimed, "what is this house for?"

"I didn't suppose you'd want to have him here."

"But dear, what kind of home will it be if you can't bring your friends?"

He saw that she was determined to be fair. He guessed that she had talked the matter out

with the wise Emily, and was following the latter's program. If one's husband must have vices, let

him have them at home, where they may be toned down and kept within limits. After all, Leon

Blum was the leader of the second largest political party in France; he was a scholar and a

poet, and had once had a fortune. In the old days, as a young aesthete, he had been a frequenter

of Emily's salon; now he had exchanged Marcel Proust for Karl Marx, but he remained a

gentleman and a brilliant mind. Surely one might invite him to lunch, and even to dinner—if

the company was carefully chosen. Emily herself would come; and Lanny knew from this that

the matter had been discussed.

He took the good the gods had provided him. The Socialist leader sat in the same chair

which Denis de Bruyne had filled, and maybe he felt some evil vibrations, for he spoke very

sadly. In the midst of infinite corruption he was trying to believe in honesty; in the midst of

wholesale cruelty he was trying to believe in kindness. The profit system, the blind competitive

struggle for raw materials and markets, was wrecking civilization. No one nation could change

this by itself; all must help, but someone must begin, and the voice of truth must be heard

everywhere. Leon Blum spoke tirelessly in the Chamber, he wrote daily editorials for Le

Populaire, he traveled here and there, pleading and explaining. He would do it at the luncheon

table of a friend, and then stop and apologize, smiling and saying that politics ruined one's

manners as well as one's character.

He was a tall slender man with the long slim hands of an artist; a thin, sensitive face, an

abundant mustache which made him a joy to the caricaturists of the French press. He had

been through campaigns of incredible bitterness; for to the partisans of the French right it was

adding insult to injury when their foes put up a Jew as their spokesman. It made the whole

movement of the workers a part of the international Jewish conspiracy, and lent venom to all

Fascist attacks upon France. "Perhaps, after all, it is a mistake that I try to serve the cause,"

said the statesman.

He was ill content with the showing which his party had made at the polls. A gain of

seventeen was not enough to save the day. He said that immediate and bold action was

required if Europe was to be spared the horrors of another war. He said that the German

Republic could not survive without generous help from France. He said that the "Cabinet of

the Barons" was a natural answer to the cabinet of the bigot, Poincare, and to that of the cheat,

Laval. Blum was standing for real disarmament of all the nations, including France, and he had

been willing to split his party rather than to yield on that issue. Said Irma, after the luncheon:

"We won't ever invite him and the de Bruynes at the same time!"

XI

From the time her decision was taken to rent the palace, Irma's mind was occupied with the

problem of a party which tout Paris would attend; a sort of housewarming—Lanny said that a

building of that size, made of white marble, would require a lot of cordiality to affect its

temperature. His wife wanted to think of something original. Parties were so much alike. People

ate your food and drank your wine, often too much of it; they danced, or listened to a singer

they had heard many times at the opera and been bored by. Lanny quoted an old saying:

"Gabble, gobble, git."

Irma insisted that tout Paris would expect something streamlined and shiny from America.