There was a strange and ominous murmur of voices, a shuffling of feet in the gallery, a silence, which was like the silence before a storm. Anna, who had sung the first verse of her song, looked around the house, a little surprised at the absence of the applause which had never yet failed her. She realized in a moment what had happened. Even though the individual faces of her audience were not to be singled out, she had been conscious from the first moment of her appearance that something was wrong. She hesitated, and for a moment thought of omitting her second verse altogether. The manager, however, who stood in the wings, nodded to her to proceed, and the orchestra commenced the first few bars of the music. Then the storm broke. A long shrill cat-call in the gallery seemed to be the signal. Then a roar of hisses. They came from every part, from the pit, the circle and the gallery, even from the stalls. And there arose too, a background of shouts.

“Who killed her husband?”

“Go and nurse him, missus!”

“Murderess!”

Anna looked from left to right. She was as pale as death, but she seemed to have lost the power of movement. They shouted to her from the wings to come off. She could not stir hand or foot. A paralyzing horror was upon her. Her eardrums were burning with the echoes of those hideous shouts. A crumpled-up newspaper thrown from the gallery hit her upon the cheek. The stage manager came out from the wings, and taking her hand led her off. There was more shouting.

The stage manager reappeared presently, and made a speech. He regretted – more deeply than he could say – the occurrence of this evening. He fancied that when they had had time to reflect, they would regret it still more. (“No, no.”) They had shown themselves grossly ignorant of facts. They had chosen to deliberately and wickedly insult a lady who had done her best to entertain them for many weeks. He could not promise that she would ever appear again in that house. (“Good job.”) Well, they might say that, but he knew very well that before long they would regret it. Of his own certain knowledge he could tell them that. For his own part he could not sufficiently admire the pluck of this lady, who, notwithstanding all that she had been through, had chosen to appear this evening rather than break her engagement. He should never sufficiently be able to regret the return which they had made to her. He begged their attention for the next turn.

He had spoken impressively, and most likely Anna, had she reappeared, would have met with a fair reception. She, however, had no idea of doing anything of the sort. She dressed rapidly and left the theatre without a word to any one. The whole incident was so unexpected that neither Courtlaw nor Brendon were awaiting. The man who sat behind a pigeon-hole, and regulated the comings and goings, was for a moment absent. Anna stood on the step and looked up and down the street for a hansom. Suddenly she felt her wrist grasped by a strong hand. It was Ennison, who loomed up through the shadows.

“Anna! Thank God I have found you at last. But you have not finished surely. Your second turn is not over, is it?”

She laughed a little hardly. Even now she was dazed. The horror of those few minutes was still with her.

“Have you not heard?” she said. “For me there is no second turn. I have said good-bye to it all. They hissed me!”

“Beasts!” he muttered. “But was it wise to sing to-night?”

“Why not? The man was nothing to me.”

“You have not seen the evening paper?”

“No. What about them?”

He called a hansom.

“They are full of the usual foolish stories. To-morrow they will all be contradicted. To-night all London believes that he was your husband.”

“That is why they hissed me, then?”

“Of course. To-morrow they will know the truth.”

She shivered.

“Is this hansom for me?” she said. “Thank you – and good-bye.”

“I am coming with you,” he said firmly.

She shook her head.

“Don’t!” she begged.

“You are in trouble,” he said. “No one has a better right than I to be with you.”

“You have no right at all,” she answered coldly.

“I have the right of the man who loves you,” he declared. “Some day you will be my wife, and it would not be well for either of us to remember that in these unhappy days you and I were separated.”

Anna gave her address to the driver. She leaned back in the cab with half-closed eyes.

“This is all madness,” she declared wearily. “Do you think it is fair of you to persecute me just now?”

“It is not persecution, Anna,” he answered gently. “Only you are the woman I love, and you are in trouble. And you are something of a heroine, too. You see, my riddle is solved. I know all.”

“You know all?”

“Your sister has told me.”

“You have seen her – since last night?”

“Yes.”

Anna shivered a little. She asked no further questions for the moment. Ennison himself, with the recollection of Annabel’s visit still fresh in his mind, was for a moment constrained and ill at ease. When they reached her rooms she stepped lightly out upon the pavement.

“Now you must go,” she said firmly. “I have had a trying evening and I need rest.”

“You need help and sympathy more, Anna,” he pleaded, “and I have the right, yes I have the right to offer you both. I will not be sent away.”

“It is my wish to be alone,” she said wearily. “I can say no more.”

She turned and fitted the latchkey into the door. He hesitated for a moment and then he followed her. She turned the gas up in her little sitting-room, and sank wearily into an easy chair. On the mantelpiece in front of her was a note addressed to her in Annabel’s handwriting. She looked at it with a little shudder, but she made no motion to take it.

“Will you say what you have to say, please, and go. I am tired, and I want to be alone.”

He came and stood on the hearthrug close to her.

“Anna,” he said, “you make it all indescribably hard for me. Will you not remember what has passed between us? I have the right to take my place by your side.”

“You have no right at all,” she answered. “Further than that, I am amazed that you should dare to allude to those few moments, to that single moment of folly. If ever I could bring myself to ask you any favour, I would ask you to forget even as I have forgotten.”

“Why in Heaven’s name should I forget?” he cried. “I love you, Anna, and I want you for my wife. There is nothing but your pride which stands between us.”

“There is great deal more,” she answered coldly. “For one thing I am going to marry David Courtlaw.”

He stepped back as though he had received a blow.

“It is not possible,” he exclaimed.

“Why not?”

“Because you are mine. You have told me that you cared. Oh, you cannot escape from it. Anna, my love, you cannot have forgotten so soon.”

He fancied that she was yielding, but her eyes fell once more upon that fatal envelope, and her tone when she spoke was colder than ever.

“That was a moment of madness,” she said. “I was lonely. I did not know what I was saying.”

“I will have your reason for this,” he said. “I will have your true reason.”

She looked at him for a moment with fire in her eyes.

“You need a reason. Ask your own conscience. What sort of a standard of life yours may be I do not know, yet in your heart you know very well that every word you have spoken to me has been a veiled insult, every time you have come into my presence has been an outrage. That is what stands between us, if you would know – that.”

She pointed to the envelope still resting upon the mantelpiece. He recognized the handwriting, and turned a shade paler. Her eyes noted it mercilessly.

“But your sister,” he said. “What has she told you?”

“Everything.”

He was a little bewildered.

“But,” he said, “you do not blame me altogether?”

She rose to her feet.

“I am tired,” she said, “and I want to rest. But if you do not leave this room I must.”

He took up his hat.

“Very well,” he said. “You are unjust and quixotic, Anna, you have no right to treat any one as you are treating me. And yet – I love you. When you send for me I shall come back. I do not believe that you will marry David Courtlaw. I do not think that you will dare to marry anybody else.”

He left the room, and she stood motionless, with flaming cheeks, listening to his retreating footsteps. When she was quite sure that he was gone she took her sister’s note from the mantelpiece and slowly broke the seal.

“Dearest A —

“I lied to you. Nigel Ennison was my very good friend, but there is not the slightest reason for your not marrying him, if you wish to do so.

“My husband knows all. We leave England to-night.

“Ever yours,
“Annabel.”

Anna moved softly to the window, and threw up the sash. Ennison had disappeared.

Chapter XXIX
MONTAGUE HILL PLAYS THE GAME

The man opened his eyes and looked curiously about him.

“Where am I?” he muttered.

Courtlaw, who was sitting by the bedside, bent over him.

“You are in a private room of St. Felix Hospital,” he said.

“Hospital? What for? What’s the matter with me?”

Courtlaw’s voice sank to a whisper. A nurse was at the other end of the room.

“There was an accident with a pistol in Miss Pellissier’s room,” he said.

The light of memory flashed in the man’s face. His brows drew a little nearer together.

“Accident! She shot me,” he muttered. “I had found her at last, and she shot me. Listen, you. Am I going to die?”

“I am afraid that you are in a dangerous state,” Courtlaw answered gravely. “The nurse will fetch the doctor directly. I wanted to speak to you first.”

“Who are you?”

“I am a friend of Miss Pellissier’s,” Courtlaw answered.

“Which one?”

“The Miss Pellissier in whose rooms you were, and who sings at the ‘Unusual,’” Courtlaw answered. “The Miss Pellissier who was at White’s with us.”

The man nodded.

“I remember you now,” he said. “So it seems that I was wrong. Annabel was in hiding all the time.”

“Annabel Pellissier is married,” Courtlaw said quietly.

“She’s my wife,” the man muttered.

“It is possible,” Courtlaw said, “that you too were deceived. Where were you married?”

“At the English Embassy in Paris. You will find the certificate in my pocket.”

“And who made the arrangements for you, and sent you there?” Courtlaw asked.

“Hainault, Celeste’s friend. He did everything.”

“I thought so,” Courtlaw said. “You too were deceived. The place to which you went was not the English Embassy, and the whole performance was a fraud. I heard rumours of it in Paris, and the place since then has been closed.”

“But Hainault – assured – me – that the marriage was binding.”

“So it would have been at the English Embassy,” Courtlaw answered, “but the place to which you went was not the English Embassy. It was rigged up for the occasion as it has been many a time before.”

“But Hainault – was – a pal. I – I don’t understand,” the man faltered wearily.

“Hainault was Celeste’s friend, and Celeste was Annabel’s enemy,” Courtlaw said. “It was a plot amongst them all to humiliate her.”

“Then she has never been my wife.”

“Never for a second. She is the wife now of another man.”

Hill closed his eyes. For fully five minutes he lay quite motionless. Then he opened them again suddenly, to find Courtlaw still by his side.

“It was a bad day for me,” he said, speaking slowly and painfully. “A bad thing for me when that legacy came. I thought I’d see Paris, do the thing – like a toff. And I heard ‘Alcide’ sing, and that little dance she did. I was in the front row, and I fancied she smiled at me. Lord, what a state I was in! Night after night I sat there, I watched her come in, I watched her go. She dropped a flower – it’s in my pocket-book now. I couldn’t rest or eat or sleep. I made Hainault’s acquaintance, stood him drinks, lent him money. He shook his head all the time. Annabel Pellissier was not like the others, he said. She had a few acquaintances, English gentlemen, but she lived with her sister – was a lady. But one day he came to me. It was Celeste’s idea. I could be presented as Meysey Hill. We were alike. He was – a millionaire. And I passed myself off as Meysey Hill, and since – then – I haven’t had a minute’s peace. God help me.”

Courtlaw was alarmed at the man’s pallor.

“You mustn’t talk any more,” he said, “but I want you to listen to me just for a moment. The doctor will be here to see you in five minutes. The nurse sent for him as soon as she saw that you were conscious. It is very possible that he will ask you to tell him before witnesses how you received your wound.”

The man smiled at him.

“You are their friend, then?”

“I am,” Courtlaw answered.

“Which one?”

“The one whose life you have been making a burden, who has been all the time shielding her sister. I would have married her long ago, but she will not have me.”

“Bring her – here,” Hill muttered. “I – ”

The door opened, and the doctor entered softly. Hill closed his eyes. Courtlaw stood up.

“He has asked to see some one,” he whispered to the doctor. “Is there any urgency?”

The doctor bent over his patient, who seemed to have fallen asleep. Presently he turned to Courtlaw.

“I think,” he said, “that I would fetch any one whom he has asked to see. His condition is not unfavourable, but there may be a relapse at any moment.”

So only a few minutes after Ennison’s departure, while Anna stood indeed with her sister’s open letter still in her hand, Courtlaw drove up in hot haste. She opened the door to him herself.

“Will you come round to the hospital?” he asked. “Hill has asked for you, and they will take his depositions to-night.”

She slipped on her cloak and stepped into the hansom with him. They drove rapidly through the emptying streets.

“Will he die?” she asked.

“Impossible to say,” he answered. “We have a private room at St. Felix. Everything is being done that can be.”

“You are sure that he asked for me – not for Annabel?”

“Certain,” Courtlaw answered.

“Has he accused any one yet?”

“Not yet,” he answered. “I have scarcely left his side.”

He was still conscious when they reached the hospital and his state was much more favourable. The doctor and another man were by his bedside when they entered the room, and there were writing materials which had evidently been used close at hand. He recognised Anna, and at once addressed her.

“Thank you – for coming,” he said. “The doctor has asked me to give them my reasons – for shooting myself. I’ve told them all that was necessary, but I – wanted to ask your pardon – for having made myself a nuisance to you, and for breaking into your rooms – and to thank you – the doctor says you bound up my wound – or I should have bled to death.”

“I forgive you willingly,” Anna said, bending over him. “It has all been a mistake, hasn’t it?”

“No more talking,” the doctor interposed.

“I want two words – with Miss Pellissier alone,” Hill pleaded.

The doctor frowned.

“Remember,” he said, “you are not by any means a dying man now, but you’ll never pull through if you don’t husband your strength.”

“Two words only,” Hill repeated.

They all left the room. Anna leaned over so that he needed only to whisper.

“Tell your sister she was right to shoot, quite right. I meant mischief. But tell her this, too. I believed that our marriage was genuine. I believed that she was my wife, or she would have been safe from me.”

“I will tell her,” Anna promised.

“She has nothing to be afraid of,” he continued. “I have signed a statement that I shot myself; bad trade and drink, both true – both true.”

His eyes were closed. Anna left the room on tiptoe. She and Courtlaw drove homewards together.

Chapter XXX
SIR JOHN’S NECKTIE

Sir John, in a quiet dark travelling suit, was sitting in a pokey little room writing letters. The room was worse than pokey, it was shabby; and the view from the window, of chimney pots and slate roofs, wholly uninspiring. Nevertheless, Sir John had the look of a man who was enjoying himself. He seemed years younger, and the arrangement of his tie and hair were almost rakish. He stamped his last letter as Annabel entered.

She was dressed for the street very much as her own maid was accustomed to dress, and there was a thick veil attached to her hat.

“John,” she declared, “I must eat or die. Do get your hat, and we will go to that corner café.”

“Right,” he answered. “I know the place you mean – very good cooking for such an out-of-the-way show. I’ll be ready in a moment.”

Sir John stamped his letters, brushed his hat, and carefully gave his moustache an upward curl before the looking-glass.

“I really do not believe,” he announced with satisfaction, “that any one would recognize me. What do you think, Annabel?”

“I don’t think they would,” she admitted. “You seem to have cultivated quite a jaunty appearance, and you certainly look years younger. One would think that you enjoyed crawling away out of your world into hiding, with a very foolish wicked wife.”

“Upon my word,” he declared, “you are right. I really am enjoying it. It is like a second honeymoon. If it wasn’t for the fear that after all – but we won’t think of that. I don’t believe any one could have traced us here. You see, we travelled second class, and we are in the least known quarter of Paris. To-night we leave for Marseilles. On Thursday we embark for South America.”

“You are a marvellous courier,” she declared, as they passed into the street. “You see, I will take your arm. It looks so French to be affectionate.”

“There are some French customs,” he declared, “which are admirable. I presume that I may not kiss you in the street?”

“Certainly not, sir,” she replied, laughing. “If you attempted such a thing it would be in order that I should smack you hard with the palm of my hand upon the cheek.”

“That is another French custom,” he remarked, “which is not so agreeable. Here we are. Shall we sit outside and drink a petit verre of something to give us an appetite while dinner is being prepared?”

“Certainly not,” she answered. “I am already so hungry that I shall begin on the petit pains. I have an appetite which I dare not increase.”

They entered the place, a pleasant little café of the sort to be met with in the outlying parts of Paris. Most of the tables were for those who smoked only and drank wine, but there were a few spread with tablecloths and laid for dinner. Sir John and Annabel seated themselves at one of them, and the proprietor himself, a small dark-visaged man, radiant with smiles, came hurrying up, followed by a waiter.

“Monsieur would dine! It was very good! And Madame, of course?” with a low bow. The carte de jour was before Monsieur. He had but to give his orders. Monsieur could rely upon his special attention, and for the cooking – well, he had his customers, who came from their homes to him year after year. And always they were well satisfied. He waited the pleasure of Monsieur.

Sir John gave his order, deliberately stumbling now and then over a word, and anglicizing others. When he had finished he took up the wine list and ordered a bottle of dry champagne.

“I am afraid,” he said to Anna afterwards, “that it was a mistake to order the champagne sec. They will guess that I am English.”

Annabel leaned back in her chair and laughed till the tears stood in her eyes.

“Did you – did you really think that they would take you for a Frenchman?” she exclaimed.

“I don’t see why not,” he answered. “These clothes are French, and I’m sure this floppy bow would make a Frenchman of me anyhow. Perhaps I ought to have let you order the dinner, but I think I got through it pretty well.”

“You did,” Anna exclaimed. “Thank Heaven, they are bringing the hors d’oeuvres. John, I shall eat that whole tin of sardines. Do take them away from me after I have had four.”

“After all,” Sir John remarked complacently, “it is astonishing how easy it is for people with brains and a little knowledge of the world to completely hide themselves. I am absolutely certain that up to the present we have escaped all notice, and I do not believe that any casual observer would take us for English people.”

A man who had been sitting with his hat tilted over his eyes at an adjacent table had risen to his feet and stood suddenly before them.

“Permit me to offer you the English paper which has just arrived, Sir John,” he said, holding out a Daily Telegraph. “You may find in it a paragraph of some interest to you.”

Sir John was speechless. It was Annabel who caught at the paper.

“You – appear to know my name, sir,” Sir John said.

“Oh, yes,” the stranger remarked good-humouredly. “I know you very well by sight, Sir John. It is my business to know most people. We were fellow passengers from Charing Cross, and we have been fellow lodgers in the Rue d’Entrepot. I trust you will not accuse me of discourtesy if I express my pleasure that henceforth our ways will lie apart.”

A little sobbing cry from Annabel arrested Sir John’s attention. The stranger with a bow returned to his table.

“Read this, John.”

“The Bucknall Mansions Mystery".

“Montague Hill, the man who was found lying wounded in Bucknall Mansions late on Wednesday night in the rooms of a well-known artiste, has recovered sufficiently to make a statement to the police. It appears that he was an unsuccessful admirer of the lady in question, and he admits that, under the influence of drink, he broke into her rooms, and there made a determined attempt at suicide. He further gave the name and address of the firm from whom he purchased the revolver and cartridges, a member of which firm has since corroborated his statement.

“Hill’s confession will finally refute a number of absurd stories which have been in circulation during the last few days. We understand that, notwithstanding the serious nature of the man’s injuries, there is every possibility of his recovery.”

Annabel pulled down her veil to hide the tears. Sir John filled his glass with trembling hand.

“Thank God,” he exclaimed. “The fellow is not such a blackguard, after all.”

Annabel’s hand stole into his.

“And I have dragged you all over here for nothing,” she murmured.

“For nothing, do you call it?” he declared. “I wouldn’t have been without this trip for worlds. It has been a real honeymoon trip, Annabel, for I feel that it has given me a wife.”

Annabel pulled up her veil.

“You are a dear,” she exclaimed affectionately. “I do hope that I shall be able to make it up to you.”

Sir John’s reply was incoherent. He called a waiter.

“Garçon,” he said, “will you ask the gentleman at the next table if he will do me the honour of taking a glass of wine with me.”

The stranger came over to them smiling. He had been on the point of leaving the restaurant. He accepted the glass of wine, and bowed.

“I drink your very good health, Sir John and Lady Ferringhall,” he said, “and I wish you a pleasant journey back to England. If I might take the liberty, Sir John,” he added, with a humorous gleam in his eyes, “I should like to congratulate you upon your tie.”

“Oh, damn the thing!” Sir John exclaimed, tucking the loose ends inside his coat.

“I propose,” Sir John said, “that we pay for our dinner – which we haven’t had – tip the garçon a sovereign, and take a cab to the Ritz.”

Annabel shook her head.

“Look at our clothes,” she exclaimed, “and besides, the funny little proprietor has gone down himself to help it along. He would be so disappointed. I am sure it will be good, John, and I could eat anything. No, let us dine here, and then go and have our coffee on the boulevards. We can take our things up with us and stay at the Continental or the Ritz.”

“Excellent,” Sir John declared. “We will do Paris like the tourists, and thank God here comes dinner.”

Everything was good. The garçon was tipped as he had never been tipped before in his life. They drove up into Paris in an open fiacre with a soft cool wind blowing in their faces, hand in hand beneath the rug. They went first to a hotel, and then out again on to the boulevards. The natural gaiety of the place seemed to have affected them both. They laughed and talked and stared about them. She took his hand in hers.

“Dear John,” she whispered. “We are to begin our married life to-night – here where I first met you. I shall only pray that I may reward you for all your goodness to me.”

Sir John, frankly oblivious of the possibility of passers-by, took her into his arms and kissed her. Then he stood up and hailed a fiacre.

“Hotel Ritz!”