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Anna the Adventuress

Page 38

Anna 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,

and--come in."

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

late to-day, and I did not get home in time for dinner."

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

starting in half an hour's time, and trying for a theatre somewhere on

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?"

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