A long, suave Rolls Royce with mahogany-panelled body glided noiselessly up to the hotel entrance. The commissionaire, his chain rattling, hurried to the revolving doors.
The first to enter was a man of medium stature with a pale sallow face, a short trimmed black beard, and a fleshy nose with distended nostrils. He wore a long, sack-like coat and a bowler hat tilted over his eyes.
The man stood still, disdainfully awaiting his companion; she had stopped to talk to a young man who had darted out to meet their car from behind a column of the hotel portico. With a nod of her head she passed through the revolving doors, This was the famous Zoya Montrose, one of the smartest woman in Paris. She wore a whit woolen costume and was tall, svelte and handsome.
"Are we going to lunch, Rolling?" she asked the man in the bowler hat.
"Not yet. I'll talk with him before lunch."
Zoya Montrose smiled, condescedingly excusing the sharp tone in which he answered her. The young man who had spoken to Zoya at the car slipped through the revolving doors. His old, worn over coat was unbutton and he carried a stick and soft felt hat in his hand. His excited face was sprinkled with freckles and the thin, stiff moustache looked as if it was glued in place. He apparently intended shaking hands but Rolling, keeping his in overcoat pockets, spoke to him in still shaper tones.
"You are a quarter of an hour late, Semyonov."
"I was detained... On our business... I'm terribly sorry... Everything has been arranged... They agree... Tomorrow they can leave for Warsaw..."
"If you shout at the top of your voice like that you'll be thrown out of the hotel," said Rolling, staring at him with dull eyes that boded no good.
"Excuse me, I'll whisper...Everything is ready in Warsaw, passports, clothing. weapons, and so on. Early in April they will cross the frontier..."
"Mademoiselle Montrose and I are going to lunch now," said Rolling. "You will go to these gentlemen and tell them I wish to see them today a little after four. And tell them that if they think they can double-cross me, I'll hand them over to the police..."
This conservation took place at the begining of March in the year 192...
GLOSSARY:
bode: to be a sign of something that will happen in the future, usually something particularly good or bad
bowler (hat): a man's hat that is black and has a round hard top
condescend: if you condescend to do something, you agree to do something which you do not consider to be good enough for your social position
dart: to move quickly or suddenly:
detain: 1/ to force someone officially to stay in a place
2/ to delay someone for a short length of time:
disdain: when you dislike someone or something and think that they do not deserve your interest or respect
distend: (usually of the stomach or other part of the body) to swell and become large (as if) by pressure from inside
double-cross: to deceive someone by working only for your own advantage in the (usually illegal) activities you have planned together
freckle: a small pale brown spot on the skin, usually on the face, especially of a light-skinned person
frontier: a border between two countries, or (especially in the past in the United States) a border between cultivated land where people live and wild land
glide: to move easily without stopping and without effort or noise
mahogany: a dark red-brown wood used to make furniture
nod: to move your head down and then up, sometimes repeatedly, especially to show agreement, approval or greeting or to show something by doing this
panel: a flat, usually rectangular part, or piece of wood, metal, cloth, etc., that fits into or onto something larger
portico (prl porticoes or porticos): a covered entrance to a building, usually a large and splendid building, which is supported by columns
rattle: to (cause to) make a noise like a series of knocks
sack: a large bag made of strong cloth, paper or plastic, used to store large amounts of something
sprinkle: to scatter a few bits or drops of something over a surface:
suave: charming and usually attractive, often in a way that is slightly false
svelte: attractively thin, graceful and stylish
tilt: to (cause to) move into a sloping position:
trim: to make something tidier or more level by cutting a small amount off it
