"You must have been mistaken."
"I think not. Yours is not a face I could easily forget."
"Thank you for the compliment," said Anne, "but in this case I am afraid it is unmerited. I was not at Tooley's Alley on that night. If you doubt me, you can ask my mother."
"No!" said Fanks, after a moment's reflection, "I shall not ask your mother--yet." As a matter of fact, the detective was well assured that mother and daughter had prepared an alibi in case of discovery. Not being ready to analyse the matter, by reason of lack of information, and certain that Anne would persist in her denial, he wisely postponed all discussion until a more fitting occasion. He, therefore, on the face of it, accepted Anne's assertion, and merely remarked that Hersham was foolish to induce her to conceal what had better have been told.
To this, Anne replied, promptly: "You must forgive him, Mr. Fanks," she said. "He knows that I hated Sir Gregory for his treatment of my sister; and he fancies that my unlucky visit might implicate me in this matter. But I have told you the reason I went there; so you must blame or excuse me as you see fit."
"I shall do neither, at present," said Fanks, significantly. "But I shall ask you why you ran away from me on that day?"
"I was afraid of you."
"Why, you did not know me; you never saw me before."
"I saw your portrait," said Miss Colmer, frankly. "You gave one to Ted--Mr. Hersham--and he told me that you were a detective. When I saw you in those chambers I guessed that you had the case in hand; and I was seized with a panic fear lest you should suspect me to be mixed up in the crime. For that reason I fled. How did you trace me?"
"It was wrong of you to go, Miss Colmer," said Fanks, not replying directly, "and I was naturally suspicious of your flight."