The young man accepted the letter and the message, and seemed about to close the door when a lady issued from one of the front rooms and intervened. She wore a black satin dress, a little shiny at the seams, a purposeless bow of white tulle at the back of her neck, and a huge chatelaine. She addressed Anna with a beaming smile and a very creditable mixture of condescension and officiousness. Under the somewhat trying incandescent light her cheeks pleaded guilty to a recent use of the powder puff.
“I think that you were inquiring for Mr. Courtlaw,” she remarked. “He is one of our guests—perhaps I should say boarders here, but he seldom returns before dinner-time. We dine at seven-thirty. Can I give him any message for you?”
“Thank you,” Anna answered. “I have a letter for him from his brother, which I was just leaving.”
“I will see that he gets it immediately on his return,” the lady promised. “You did not wish to see him particularly this evening, then?”
Anna hesitated.
“Well, no,” she answered. “To tell you the truth though, I am quite a stranger in London, and it occurred to me that Mr. Courtlaw might have been able to give me an idea where to stop.”
The lady in black satin looked at the pile of luggage outside and hesitated.
“Were you thinking of private apartments, a boarding-house or an hotel?” she asked.
“I really had not thought about it at all,” Anna answered smiling. “I expected to stay with a relation, but I found that their arrangements did not allow of it. I have been used to living in apartments in Paris, but I suppose the system is different here.”