By this time, Mary was wide-awake, for the name of Burke, the Police Inspector, was enough to startle her out of drowsiness.
“Bring them in, in five minutes,” she directed.
She got up, slipped into a tea-gown, bathed her eyes in cologne, dressed her hair a little, and went into the drawing-room, where the two men had been waiting for something more than a quarter of an hour—to the violent indignation of both.
“Oh, here you are, at last!” the big, burly man cried as she entered. The whole air of him, though he was in civilian's clothes, proclaimed the policeman.
“Yes, Inspector,” Mary replied pleasantly, as she advanced into the room. She gave a glance toward the other visitor, who was of a slenderer form, with a thin, keen face, and recognized him instantly as Demarest, who had taken part against her as the lawyer for the store at the time of her trial, and who was now holding the office of District Attorney. She went to the chair at the desk, and seated herself in a leisurely fashion that increased the indignation of the fuming Inspector. She did not trouble to ask her self-invited guests to sit.
“To whom do I owe the pleasure of this visit, Inspector?” she remarked coolly. It was noticeable that she said whom and not what, as if she understood perfectly that the influence of some person brought him on this errand.
“I have come to have a few quiet words with you,” the Inspector declared, in a mighty voice that set the globes of the chandeliers a-quiver. Mary disregarded him, and turned to the other man.
“How do you do, Mr. Demarest?” she said, evenly. “It's four years since we met, and they've made you District Attorney since then. Allow me to congratulate you.”
Demarest's keen face took on an expression of perplexity.
“I'm puzzled,” he confessed. “There is something familiar, somehow, about you, and yet——” He scrutinized appreciatively the loveliness of the girl with her classically beautiful face, that was still individual in its charm, the slim graces of the tall, lissome form. “I should have remembered you. I don't understand it.”