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At two o’clock that night the phone woke Nicole and she heard d**k answer it from what they called the restless bed, in the next room.
‘Oui, oui ... mais à qui est-ce-que je parle? ... Oui ...’ His voice woke up with surprise. ‘But can I speak to one of the ladies, Sir the Officer? They are both ladies of the very highest prominence, ladies of connections that might cause political complications of the most serious... . It is a fact, I swear to you... . Very well, you will see.’
He got up and, as he absorbed the situation, his self-knowledge assured him that he would undertake to deal with it, the old fatal pleasingness, the old forceful charm, swept back with its cry of ‘Use me!’ He would have to go fix this thing that he didn’t care a damn about, because it had early become a habit
