Anna the Adventuress
Page 38Anna sat in a chair in her room and sighed. She was alone, and the
mask of her unchanging high spirits was for the moment laid aside. She
was a little paler than when she had come to London, a little paler
and a little thinner. There were dark rims under her eyes, soft now
with unshed tears. For this three weeks had been the hardest of her
life. There had been disappointments and humiliations, and although
she hated to admit it even to herself, she was in desperate straits.
Nevertheless, she was still fighting.
"There is one thing I must concentrate on at the moment," she told
herself, "and that is how to pay my next week's bill to Mrs. White. It
ought not to be much. I have gone without dinner for three nights,
Sydney Courtlaw followed his timid knock. Anna raised her eyebrows at
the sight of him. He was in evening dress: swallow-tailed coat and
white tie.
"Is this a concession to Mrs. White?" she asked, laughing. "How
gratified she must have been! If only I had known I would have made an
effort to get home in time for dinner."
"Not exactly," he answered nervously. "Please forgive me coming up,
Miss Pellissier, but you have not been down to dinner for three
nights, and--Brendon and I--we were afraid that you might be unwell."
"Never better in my life," Anna declared briskly. "I had lunch very
She smiled grimly at the recollection of that lunch--tea and roll at a
cheap cafe. Sydney was watching her eagerly.
"I'm glad you're all right," he said, "because we want you to do us a
favour. Brendon's had an awful stroke of luck."
"I'm delighted," she exclaimed. "Do tell me all about it."
"He only heard this afternoon," Sydney continued. "An uncle in New
York is dead, and has left him loads of money. A lawyer has come all
the way from America about it. We want to celebrate, and we want you
to help us. Brendon suggests supper at the Carlton. We meant to make
it dinner and a theatre, but you were not home. We thought of
the way."
"How delightful!" exclaimed Anna. "I should love to come. It is very
sweet of you to have waited for me. Run away now, please. I must see
if I have a gown fit to wear."
* * * * * "This," Anna declared, as she sipped her wine and looked around her,
"reminds me more of Paris than any place I have yet seen. I suppose it
is the mirrors and decorations."
"And the people?" Brendon asked. "What do you think of them?"