Anna the Adventuress

The external changes in Brendon following on his alteration of fortune

were sufficiently noticeable. From head to foot he was attired in the

fashionable garb of the young man of the moment. Not only that, but he

carried himself erect--the slight slouch which had bent his shoulders

had altogether disappeared. He came to her at once, and turning,

walked by her side.

"Now I should like to know," she said, looking at him with a quiet

smile, "what you are doing here? It is not a particularly inspiring

neighbourhood for walking about by yourself."

"I plead guilty, Miss Pellissier," he answered at once. "I saw you go

into that place, and I have been waiting for you ever since."

"I am not sure whether I feel inclined to scold or thank you," she

declared. "I think as I feel in a good humour it must be the latter."

He faced her doggedly.

"Miss Pellissier," he said, "I am going to take a liberty."

"You alarm me," she murmured, smiling.

"Don't think that I have been playing the spy upon you," he continued.

"Neither Sydney nor I would think of such a thing. But we can't help

noticing. You have been going out every morning, and coming home

late--tired out--too tired to come down to dinner. Forgive me, but you

have been looking, have you not, for some employment?"

"Quite true!" she answered. "I have found out at last what a useless

person I am--from a utilitarian point of view. It has been very

humiliating."

"And that, I suppose," he said, waving his stick towards Mr. Earles'

office, "was your last resource."

"It certainly was," she admitted. "I changed my last shilling

yesterday."

He was silent for a moment or two. His lips were tight drawn. His eyes

flashed as he turned towards her.

"Do you think that it is kind of you, Miss Pellissier," he said,

almost roughly, "to ignore your friends so? In your heart you know

quite well that you could pay Sydney or me no greater compliment than

to give us just a little of your confidence. We know London, and you

are a stranger here. Surely our advice would have been worth having,

at any rate. You might have spared yourself many useless journeys and

disappointments, and us a good deal of anxiety. Instead, you are

willing to go to a place like that where you ought not to be allowed

to think of showing yourself."

"Why not?" she asked quietly.

"The very question shows your ignorance," he declared. "You know

nothing about the stage. You haven't an idea what the sort of

employment you could get there would be like, the sort of people you

would be mixed up with. It is positively hateful to think of it."

She laid her fingers for a moment upon his arm.