Anna the Adventuress Part 45

"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 pa.s.sed 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?"