Anna the Adventuress

Chapter XVI

THE DISCOMFITURE OF SIR JOHN

Sir John looked from one to the other of the two sisters. His face darkened.

“My arrival appears to be opportune,” he said stiffly. “I was hoping to be able to secure a few minutes’ conversation with you, Miss Pellissier. Perhaps my wife has already prepared you for what I wish to say.”

“Not in the least,” Anna answered calmly. “We have scarcely mentioned your name.”

Sir John coughed. He looked at Annabel, whose face was buried in her hands – he looked back at Anna, who was regarding him with an easy composure which secretly irritated him.

“It is concerning – our future relations,” Sir John pronounced ponderously.

“Indeed!” Anna answered indifferently. “That sounds interesting.”

Sir John frowned. Anna was unimpressed. Elegant, a little scornful, she leaned slightly against the back of a chair and looked him steadily in the eyes.

“I have no wish,” he said, “to altogether ignore the fact that you are my wife’s sister, and have therefore a certain claim upon me.”

Anna’s eyes opened a little wider, but she said nothing.

“A claim,” he continued, “which I am quite prepared to recognize. It will give me great pleasure to settle an annuity for a moderate amount upon you on certain conditions.”

“A – what?” Anna asked.

“An annuity – a sum of money paid to you yearly or quarterly through my solicitors, and which you can consider as a gift from your sister. The conditions are such as I think you will recognize the justice of. I wish to prevent a repetition of any such errand as I presume you have come here upon this evening. I cannot have my wife distressed or worried.”

“May I ask,” Anna said softly, “what you presume to have been the nature of my errand here this evening?”

Sir John pointed to Annabel, who was as yet utterly limp.

“I cannot but conclude,” he said, “that your errand involved the recital to my wife of some trouble in which you find yourself. I should like to add that if a certain amount is needed to set you free from any debts you may have contracted, in addition to this annuity, you will not find me unreasonable.”

Anna glanced momentarily towards her sister, but Annabel neither spoke nor moved.

“With regard to the conditions I mentioned,” Sir John continued, gaining a little confidence from Anna’s silence, “I think you will admit that they are not wholly unreasonable. I should require you to accept no employment whatever upon the stage, and to remain out of England.”

Anna’s demeanour was still imperturbable, her marble pallor untinged by the slightest flush of colour. She regarded him coldly, as though wondering whether he had anything further to say. Sir John hesitated, and then continued.

“I trust,” he said, “that you will recognize the justice of these conditions. Under happier circumstances nothing would have given me more pleasure than to have offered you a home with your sister. You yourself, I am sure, recognize how impossible you have made it for me now to do anything of the sort. I may say that the amount of the annuity I propose to allow you is two hundred a year.”

Anna looked for a moment steadily at her sister, whose face was still averted. Then she moved towards the door. Before she passed out she turned and faced Sir John. The impassivity of her features changed at last. Her eyes were lit with mirth, the corners of her mouth quivered.

“Really, Sir John,” she said, “I don’t know how to thank you. I can understand now these newspapers when they talk of your magnificent philanthropy. It is magnificent indeed. And yet – you millionaires should really, I think, cultivate the art of discrimination. I am so much obliged to you for your projected benevolence. Frankly, it is the funniest thing which has ever happened to me in my life. I shall like to think of it – whenever I feel dull. Good-bye, Anna!”

Annabel sprang up. Sir John waved her back.

“Do I understand you then to refuse my offer?” he asked Anna.

She shot a sudden glance at him. Sir John felt hot and furious. It was maddening to be made to feel that he was in any way the inferior of this cool, self-possessed young woman, whose eyes seemed for a moment to scintillate with scorn. There were one or two bitter moments in his life when he had been made to feel that gentility laid on with a brush may sometimes crack and show weak places – that deportment and breeding are after all things apart. Anna went out.

Her cheeks burned for a moment or two when she reached the street, although she held her head upright and walked blithely, even humming to herself fragments of an old French song. And then at the street corner she came face to face with Nigel Ennison.

“I won’t pretend,” he said, “that this is an accident. The fates are never so kind to me. As a matter of fact I have been waiting for you.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Really,” she said. “And by what right do you do anything of the sort?”

“No right at all,” he admitted. “Only it is much too late for you to be out alone. You have been to see your sister, of course. How is she?”

“My sister is quite well, thank you,” she answered. “Would you mind calling that hansom for me?”

He looked at it critically and shook his head.

“You really couldn’t ride in it,” he said, deprecatingly. “The horse’s knees are broken, and I am not sure that the man is sober. I would sooner see you in a ’bus again.”

She laughed.

“Do you mean to say that you have been here ever since I came?”

“I am afraid that I must confess it,” he answered. “Idiotic, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely,” she agreed coldly. “I wish you would not do it.”

“Would not do what?”

“Well, follow buses from Russell Square to Hampstead.”

“I can assure you,” he answered, “that it isn’t a habit of mine. But seriously – ”

“Well seriously?”

“Isn’t it your own fault a little? Why do you not tell me your address, and allow me to call upon you.”

“Why should I? I have told you that I do not wish for acquaintances in London.”

“Perhaps not in a general way,” he answered calmly. “You are quite right, I think. Only I am not an acquaintance at all. I am an old friend, and I declined to be shelved.”

“Would you mind telling me,” Anna asked, “how long I knew you in Paris?”

He looked at her sideways. There was nothing to be learned from her face.

“Well,” he said slowly, “I had met you three times – before Drummond’s dinner.”

“Oh, Drummond’s dinner!” she repeated. “You were there, were you?”

He laughed a little impatiently.

“Isn’t that rather a strange question – under the circumstances?” he asked quietly.

Her cheeks flushed a dull red. She felt that there was a hidden meaning under his words. Yet her embarrassment was only a passing thing. She dismissed the whole subject with a little shrug of the shoulders.

“We are both of us trenching upon forbidden ground,” she said. “It was perhaps my fault. You have not forgotten – ”

“I have forgotten nothing?” he answered, enigmatically.

Anna hailed a bus. He looked at her reproachfully. The bus however was full. They fell into step again. More than ever a sense of confusion was upon Ennison.

“Last time I saw you,” he reminded her, “you spoke, did you not, of obtaining some employment in London.”

“Quite true,” she answered briskly, “and thanks to you I have succeeded.”

“Thanks to me,” he repeated, puzzled. “I don’t understand.”

“No? But it is very simple. It was you who were so much amazed that I did not try – the music hall stage here.”

“You must admit,” he declared, “that to us – who had seen you – the thought of your trying anything else was amazing.”

“At any rate,” she declared, “your remarks decided me. I have an engagement with a theatrical agent – I believe for the ‘Unusual’.”

“You are going to sing in London?” he said quietly.

“Yes.”

For a moment or two he did not speak. Glancing towards him she saw that a shadow had fallen upon his face.

“Tell me,” she insisted, “why you look like that. You are afraid – that here in London – I shall not be a success. It is that, is it not?”

“No,” he answered readily. “It is not that. The idea of your being a failure would never have occurred to me.”

“Then why are you sorry that I am going to the ‘Unusual’? I do not understand.”

Their eyes met for a moment. His face was very serious.

“I am sorry,” he said slowly. “Why, I do not know.”

“I positively insist upon knowing,” she declared cheerfully. “The sooner you tell me the better.”

“It is very hard to explain,” he answered. “I think that it is only an idea. Only you seem to me since the time when I knew you in Paris to have changed – to have changed in some subtle manner which I find at times utterly bewildering. I find you an impenetrable enigma. I find it impossible to associate you with – my little friend of the ‘Ambassador’s.’ The things she said and did from you – seem impossible. I had a sort of idea,” he went on, “that you were starting life all over again, and it seemed awfully plucky.”

There was a long silence. Then Anna spoke more seriously than usual.

“I think,” she said, “that I rather like what you have said. Don’t be afraid to go on thinking it. Even though I am going to sing at the ‘Unusual’ you may find that the ‘Alcide,’ whom you knew in Paris does not exist any more. At the same time,” she added, in a suddenly altered tone, “it isn’t anything whatever to do with you, is it?”

“Why not?” he answered. “You permitted me then to call you my friend. I do not intend to allow you to forget.”

They passed a man who stared at them curiously. Ennison started and looked anxiously at Anna. She was quite unconcerned.

“Did you see who that was?” he asked in a low tone.

“I did not recognize him,” Anna answered. “I supposed that he took off his hat to you.”

“It was Cheveney!” he said slowly.

“Cheveney!” she repeated. “I do not know any one of that name.”

He caught her wrist and turned her face towards him. Her eyes were wide open with amazement.

“Mr. Ennison!”

He released her.

“Good God!” he exclaimed. “Who are you – Annabel Pellissier or her ghost?”

Anna laughed.

“If it is a choice between the two,” she answered, “I must be Annabel Pellissier. I am certainly no ghost.”

“You have her face and figure,” he muttered. “You have even her name. Yet you can look Cheveney in the face and declare that you do not know him. You have changed from the veriest butterfly to a woman – you wear different clothes, you have the air of another world. If you do not help me to read the riddle of yourself, Annabel, I think that very soon I shall be a candidate for the asylum.”

She laughed heartily, and became as suddenly grave.

“So Mr. Cheveney was another Paris friend, was he?” she asked.

“Don’t befool me any more,” he answered, almost roughly. “If any one should know – you should! He was your friend. We were only —les autres.”

“That is quite untrue,” she declared cheerfully. “I certainly knew him no better than you.”

“Then he – and Paris – lied,” Ennison answered.

“That,” she answered, “is far easier to believe. You are too credulous.”

Ennison had things to say, but he looked at her and held his tongue. They turned the last corner, and almost immediately a man who had been standing there turned and struck Ennison a violent blow on the cheek. Ennison reeled, and almost fell. Recovering himself quickly his instinct of self-defence was quicker than his recollection of Anna’s presence. He struck out from the shoulder, and the man measured his length upon the pavement.

Anna sprang lightly away across the street. Brendon and Courtlaw who had been watching for her, met her at the door. She pointed across the road.

“Please go and see that – nothing happens,” she pleaded.

“It is the first moment we have let him out of our sight,” Brendon exclaimed, as he hastened across the street.

Hill sat up on the pavement and mopped the blood from his cheek. Ennison’s signet-ring had cut nearly to the bone.

“What the devil do you mean by coming for me like that?” Ennison exclaimed, glowering down upon him. “Serves you right if I’d cracked your skull.”

Hill looked up at him, an unkempt, rough-looking object, with broken collar, tumbled hair, and the blood slowly dripping from his face.

“What do you mean, hanging round with my wife?” he answered fiercely.

Ennison looked down on him in disgust.

“You silly fool,” he said. “I know nothing about your wife. The young lady I was with is not married at all. Why don’t you make sure before you rush out like that upon a stranger?”

“You were with my wife,” Hill repeated sullenly. “I suppose you’re like the rest of them. Call her Miss Pellissier, eh? I tell you she’s my wife, and I’ve got the certificate in my pocket.”

“I don’t know who you are,” Ennison said quietly, “but you are a thundering liar.”

Hill staggered to his feet and drew a folded paper from his pocket.

“Marriage certificates don’t tell lies, at any rate,” he said. “Just look that through, will you.”

Ennison took the document, tore it half in two without looking at it, and flung it back in Hill’s face. Then he turned on his heel and walked off.

Chapter XVII

THE CHANGE IN “ALCIDE”

“By-the-bye,” his neighbour asked him languidly, “who is our hostess?”

“Usually known, I believe, as Lady Ferringhall,” Ennison answered, “unless I have mixed up my engagement list and come to the wrong house.”

“How dull you are,” the lady remarked. “Of course I mean, who was she?”

“I believe that her name was Pellissier,” Ennison answered.

“Pellissier,” she repeated thoughtfully. “There were some Hampshire Pellissiers.”

“She is one of them,” Ennison said.

“Dear me! I wonder where Sir John picked her up.”

“In Paris, I think,” Ennison answered. “Only married a few months ago and lived out at Hampstead.”

“Heavens!” the lady exclaimed. “I heard they came from somewhere outrageous.”

“Hampstead didn’t suit Lady Ferringhall,” Ennison remarked. “They have just taken this house from Lady Cellender.”

“And what are you doing here?” the lady asked.

“Politics!” Ennison answered grimly. “And you?”

“Same thing. Besides, my husband has shares in Sir John’s company. Do you know, I am beginning to believe that we only exist nowadays by the tolerance of these millionaire tradesmen. Our land brings us in nothing. We have to get them to let us in for the profits of their business, and in return we ask them to – dinner. By-the-bye, have you seen this new woman at the ‘Empire’? What is it they call her – ‘Alcide?’”

“Yes, I have seen her,” Ennison answered.

“Every one raves about her,” Lady Angela continued. “For my part I can see no difference in any of these French girls who come over here with their demure manner and atrocious songs.”

“Alcide’s songs are not atrocious,” Ennison remarked.

Lady Angela shrugged her shoulders.

“It is unimportant,” she said. “Nobody understands them, of course, but we all look as though we did. Something about this woman rather reminds me of our hostess.”

Ennison thought so too half an hour later, when having cut out from one of the bridge tables he settled down for a chat with Annabel. Every now and then something familiar in her tone, the poise of her head, the play of her eyes startled him. Then he remembered that she was Anna’s sister.

He lowered his voice a little and leaned over towards her.

“By-the-bye, Lady Ferringhall,” he said, “do you know that I am a very great admirer of your sister’s? I wonder if she has ever spoken to you of me.”

The change in Lady Ferringhall’s manner was subtle but unmistakable. She answered him almost coldly.

“I see nothing of my sister,” she said. “In Paris our lives were far apart, and we had seldom the same friends. I have heard of you from my husband. You are somebody’s secretary, are you not?”

It was plain that the subject was distasteful to her, but Ennison, although famous in a small way for his social tact, did not at once discard it.

“You have not seen your sister lately,” he remarked. “I believe that you would find her in some respects curiously altered. I have never in my life been so much puzzled by any one as by your sister. Something has changed her tremendously.”

Annabel looked at him curiously.

“Do you mean in looks?” she asked.

“Not only that,” he answered. “In Paris your sister appeared to me to be a charming student of frivolity. Here she seems to have developed into a brilliant woman with more character and steadfastness than I should ever have given her credit for. Her features are the same, yet the change has written its mark into her face. Do you know, Lady Ferringhall, I am proud that your sister permits me to call myself her friend.”

“And in Paris – ”

“In Paris,” he interrupted, “she was a very delightful companion, but beyond that – one did not take her seriously. I am not boring you, am I?”

She raised her eyes to his and smiled into his face.

“You are not boring me,” she said, “but I would rather talk of something else. I suppose you will think me very unsisterly and cold-hearted, but there are circumstances in connexion with my sister’s latest exploit which are intensely irritating both to my husband and to myself.”

He recognized the force, almost the passion, which trembled in her tone, and he at once abandoned the subject. He remained talking with her however. It was easy for him to see that she desired to be agreeable to him. They talked lightly but confidentially until Sir John approached them with a slight frown upon his face.

“Mr. Ennison,” he said, “it is for you to cut in at Lady Angela’s table. Anna, do you not see that the Countess is sitting alone?”

She rose, and flashed a quick smile upon Ennison behind her husband’s back.

“You must come and see me some afternoon,” she said to him.

He murmured his delight, and joined the bridge party, where he played with less than his accustomed skill. On the way home he was still thoughtful. He turned in at the club. They were talking of “Alcide,” as they often did in those days.

“She has improved her style,” someone declared. “Certainly her voice is far more musical.”

Another differed.

“She has lost something,” he declared, “something which brought the men in crowds around the stage at the ‘Ambassador’s.’ I don’t know what you’d call it – a sort of witchery, almost suggestiveness. She sings better perhaps. But I don’t think she lays hold of one so.”

“I will tell you what there is about her which is so fetching,” Drummond, who was lounging by, declared. “She contrives somehow to strike the personal note in an amazing manner. You are wedged in amongst a crowd, perhaps in the promenade, you lean over the back, you are almost out of sight. Yet you catch her eye – you can’t seem to escape from it. You feel that that smile is for you, the words are for you, the whole song is for you. Naturally you shout yourself hoarse when she has finished, and feel jolly pleased with yourself.”

“And if you are a millionaire like Drummond,” someone remarked, “you send round a note and ask her to come out to supper.”

“In the present case,” Drummond remarked, glancing across the room, “Cheveney wouldn’t permit it.”

Ennison dropped the evening paper which he had been pretending to read. Cheveney strolled up, a pipe in his mouth.

“Cheveney wouldn’t have anything to say about it, as it happens,” he remarked, a little grimly. “Ungracious little beast, I call her. I don’t mind telling you chaps that except on the stage I haven’t set eyes on her this side of the water. I’ve called half a dozen times at her flat, and she won’t see me. Rank ingratitude, I call it.”

There was a shout of laughter. Drummond patted him on the shoulder.

“Never mind, old chap,” he declared. “Let’s hope your successor is worthy of you.”

“You fellows,” Ennison said quietly, “are getting a little wild. I have known Miss Pellissier as long as any of you perhaps, and I have seen something of her since her arrival in London. I consider her a very charming young woman – and I won’t hear a word about Paris, for there are things I don’t understand about that, but I will stake my word upon it that to-day Miss Pellissier is entitled not only to our admiration, but to our respect. I firmly believe that she is as straight as a die.”

Ennison’s voice shook a little. They were his friends, and they recognized his unusual earnestness. Drummond, who had been about to speak, refrained. Cheveney walked away with a shrug of the shoulders.

“I believe you are quite right so far as regards the present, at any rate,” someone remarked, from the depths of an easy chair. “You see, her sister is married to Ferringhall, isn’t she? and she herself must be drawing no end of a good screw here. I always say that it’s poverty before everything that makes a girl skip the line.”

Ennison escaped. He was afraid if he stayed that he would make a fool of himself. He walked through the misty September night to his rooms. On his way he made a slight divergence from the direct route and paused for a moment outside the flat where Anna was now living. It was nearly one o’clock; but there were lights still in all her windows. Suddenly the door of the flat opened and closed. A man came out, and walking recklessly, almost cannoned into Ennison. He mumbled an apology and then stopped short.

“It’s Ennison, isn’t it?” he exclaimed. “What the devil are you doing star-gazing here?”

Ennison looked at him in surprise.

“I might return the compliment, Courtlaw,” he answered, “by asking why the devil you come lurching on to the pavement like a drunken man.”

Courtlaw was pale and dishevelled. He was carelessly dressed, and there were marks of unrest upon his features. He pointed to where the lights still burned in Anna’s windows.

“What do you think of that farce?” he exclaimed bitterly. “You are one of those who must know all about it. Was there ever such madness?”

“I am afraid that I don’t understand,” Ennison answered. “You seem to have come from Miss Pellissier’s rooms. I had no idea even that she was a friend of yours.”

Courtlaw laughed hardly. His eyes were red. He was in a curious state of desperation.

“Nor am I now,” he answered. “I have spoken too many truths to-night. Why do women take to lies and deceit and trickery as naturally as a duck to water?”

“You are not alluding, I hope, to Miss Pellissier?” Ennison said stiffly.

“Why not? Isn’t the whole thing a lie? Isn’t her reputation, this husband of hers, the ‘Alcide’ business, isn’t it all a cursed juggle? She hasn’t the right to do it. I – ”

He stopped short. He had the air of a man who has said too much. Ennison was deeply interested.

“I should like to understand you,” he said. “I knew Miss Pellissier in Paris at the ‘Ambassador’s,’ and I know her now, but I am convinced that there is some mystery in connexion with her change of life. She is curiously altered in many ways. Is there any truth, do you suppose, in this rumoured marriage?”

“I know nothing,” Courtlaw answered hurriedly. “Ask me nothing. I will not talk to you about Miss Pellissier or her affairs.”