“Police? No! We will have no police.”

“You object to the scandal? I had thought of that.”

“It is not that I object to the scandal. I despise Deschamps and Yvette too much to take the slightest notice of either of them. I could not have believed that women would so treat another woman.” She hid her face in her hands.

“But is it not your duty — ” I began.

“Mr. Foster, please, please don’t argue. I am incapable of prosecuting these creatures. You say Yvette is locked up in the salon. Go to her, and tell her to depart. Tell her that I shall do nothing, that I do not hate her, that I bear her no ill-will, that I simply ignore her. And let her carry the same message to Carlotta Deschamps.”