“There is a lady to see you.”
“A lady to see me?” exclaimed Viola, in some surprise.
“Yes. She is in the library, waiting. I said I did not know how long you would be away, but she said she was a friend of the family and would wait.”
“Who is she?” asked Viola.
“I don't know. But she is a large, blonde lady.”
“I can't imagine,” murmured Viola. “Won't you come in, Colonel Ashley? It may be some one I would want you to see, also.”
As Viola, followed at a little distance by the colonel, entered the library, a large, blonde woman arose to meet her.
“I am so glad to see you, my dear Miss Carwell,” began the woman, and then Colonel Ashley had one of his questions answered. The voice was the same as that of the shawled woman LeGrand Blossom had met on the ferryboat the night before, and it was the voice of Annie Tighe, alias Maude Warren, alias Morocco Kate, one of the cleverest of New York's de luxe crooks.
“So you have a hand in the game, have you, my dear?” mused the colonel, as he caught the now well-remembered tones. “Well, I guess you don't want to see me right away, and I don't want you to.”
He had kept behind Viola during the walk down the hall, and the large blonde had not noticed him, he hoped. He whispered to Viola, who stood just at the entrance to the room: