Chapter 24: Finesse

⁠​​​‌​​​​​​‌‌‌​‌​​​‌​‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌‌‌​‌​​​​‌​⁠The door of a room on the ground floor was opened to us by a man-servant. As we entered the rattle of a piano stopped, and a hot wave of mingled scent and cigar-smoke struck my nostrils. The first thing I noticed over Davies’s shoulder, as he preceded me into the room, was a woman—the source of the perfume I decided—turning round from the piano as he passed it and staring him up and down with a di