“He mentioned the matter to me also,” Miss Pellissier remarked stiffly. “The visit seems to have made a most painful impression upon him. To tell you the truth, he spoke to me very seriously upon the subject.”
Anna sprang up.
“I will be off,” she declared. “My cab with all that luggage would give the whole show away. Good-bye, aunt.”
Miss Pellissier tried ineffectually to conceal her relief.
“I do not like to seem inhospitable, Anna,” she said hesitatingly. “And of course you are my niece just as Annabel is, although I am sorry to learn that your conduct has been much less discreet than hers. But at the same time, I must say plainly that I think your presence here just now would be a great misfortune. I wish very much that you had written before leaving Paris.”
Anna nodded.
“Quite right,” she said. “I ought to have done. Good-bye aunt. I’ll come and see you again later on. Annabel, come to the door with me,” she added a little abruptly. “There is something which I must say to you.”
Annabel rose and followed her sister from the room. A maidservant held the front door open. Anna sent her away.
“Annabel,” she said brusquely. “Listen to me.”
“Well?”