matter, does it? I guess you're trying to be kind, in your own way.'
'Then you'll do as I suggest?' Elizabeth moved the folder to put it back in the drawer.
'No,' Janet Saxon Scarlett said firmly. 'I'll do exactly as I please. And I don't think I'll be a joke in athletic clubs.'
'Don't be too sure of that!' Elizabeth slammed the folder back on the top of the desk.
'I'll wait until a year is up,' said Janet, 'and then do whatever I have to. My father will know what to do. I'll do what he says.'
'Your father may have certain misgivings. He's a business man.'
'He's also my father!'
'I can very well understand that, my dear. I understand it so well that I suggest you allow me to ask you several questions before you go.'
Elizabeth stood up and crossed to the library door. Closing it, she turned the brass lock.
Janet watched the old woman's movement with as much curiosity as fear. It was not like her mother-in-law to be the least concerned about interruptions. Any unwanted intruder was promptly ordered out.
There's nothing more to say. I want to leave.'
'I agree. You have little to say,' broke in Elizabeth, who had returned to the desk. 'You enjoyed Europe, my dear? Paris, Marseilles, Rome? I must say, though, New York's apparently a dull place for you. I suppose under the circumstances there's far more to offer across the ocean.'
'What do you mean?'
'Just that. You seem to have enjoyed yourself somewhat unreasonably. My son found himself quite a likely playmate for his escapades. However, if I do so say, he was frequently less obvious than you.'
'I don't know what you're talking about.' Elizabeth opened the folder and flipped over several pages.
'Let's see, now. There was a colored trumpet player in Paris - -'
'A what! What are you talking about?'
'He brought you back to your hotel, excuse me, yours and Ulster's hotel, at eight o'clock in the morning. Obviously, you'd been with him all night.'
Janet stared at her mother-in-law in disbelief. Although dazed, she answered her rapidly, quietly. 'Yes. Paris, yes! And I was with him, but not like that. I was trying to keep up with Ulster. Half the night trying to find him.'
That fact doesn't appear here. You were seen coming into the hotel with a colored man supporting you.'
'I was exhausted.'
'Drunk is the word used here...'
Then it's a lie!'
The old woman turned the page. 'And then one week in the south of France? Do you remember that weekend, Janet?'
'No,' the girl answered hesitantly. 'What are you doing? What have you got there?'
Elizabeth rose, holding the folder away from the girl's eyes. 'Oh, come now. That weekend at Madame Auricle's. What do they call her chateau - the Silhouette? Quite a dramatic name.'
'She was a friend of Ulster!'
'And, of course, you had no idea what Auriole's Silhouette meant, and still means, I believe, throughout the south of France.'
'You're not suggesting that I had anything to do with any of that?'
'Just what did people mean when they said they went to Auriole's Silhouette?'
'You can't mean it.'
'What happens at Auriole's Silhouette?' Elizabeth's voice rose viciously.
'I don't... don't know. I don't know.'
'What happens?'
'I won't answer you!'
That's very prudent, but I'm afraid it won't do! It's common knowledge that the outstanding items on Madame Auriole's menus are opium, hashish, marijuana, heroin... a haven for the users of every form of narcotics!'
'I did not know that!'
'You didn't know anything about it? For an entire weekend? For three days during the height of her season?'
'No!... Yes, I found out and I left. I left as soon as I realized what they were doing!'
'Orgies for narcotics addicts. Marvelous opportunities for the sophisticated voyeur. Day and night. And Mrs. Scarlett knew nothing about it at all!'
'I swear I didn't!'
Elizabeth's voice changed to one of gentle firmness. 'I'm sure you didn't, my dear, but I don't know who would believe you.' She paused briefly. There's a great deal more here.' She flipped the pages, sitting down once more behind the desk. 'Berlin, Vienna, Rome. Particularly Cairo.'
Janet ran toward Elizabeth Scarlatti and leaned across the desk, her eyes wide with fright. 'Ulster left me for almost two weeks! I didn't know where he was. I was petrified!'
'You were seen going into the strangest places, my dear. You even committed one of the gravest international crimes. You bought another human being. You purchased a slave.'
'No! No, I didn't! That's not true!'
'Oh, yes, it is. You bought a thirteen-year-old Arab girl who was being sold into