rvant evidently contemplating approach; but
I ignored all save my own fixed purpose.

"You must listen to what I have to say!" I whispered. "If you
decline, I shall have no alternative but to call in the detective
who holds a warrant for your arrest!"

She stood quite still, watching me coolly. "I suppose you would
wish to avoid a scene?" I added.

"You have already made me the object of much undesirable attention,"
she replied scornfully. "I do not need your assurance that you
would disgrace me utterly! You are talking nonsense, as you must
be aware--unless you are insane. But if your object be to force
your acquaintance upon me, your methods are novel, and, under the
circumstances, effective. Come, sir, you may talk to me--for
three minutes!"

The musical voice had lost nothing of its imperiousness, but for
one instant the lips parted, affording a fleeting glimpse of pearl
beyond the coral.

Her sudden change of front was bewildering. Now, she entered the
lift and I followed her. As we ascended side by side I found it
impossible to believe that this dainty white figure was that of an
associate of the Hashishin, that of a creature of the terrible
Hassan of Aleppo. Yet that she was the same girl who, a few days
after my return from the East, had shown herself conversant with
the plans of the murderous fanatics was beyond doubt. Her accent
on that occasion clearly had been assumed, with what object I could
not imagine. Then, as we quitted the lift and entered a cosy
lounge, my companion seated herself upon a Chesterfield, signing to
me to sit beside her.

As I did so she lay back smiling, and regarding me from beneath her
black lashes. Thus, half veiled, her great violet eyes were most
wonderful.

"Now, sir," she said softly, "explain yourself."

"Then you persist in pretending that we have not met before?"

"There is no occasion for pretence," she replied lightly; and I
found myself comparing her voice with her figure, her figure with
her face, and vainly endeavouring to compute her age. Frankly,
she was bewildering--this lovely girl who seemed so wholly a woman
of the world.

"This fencing is useless."

"It is quite useless! Come, I know New York, London, and I know
Paris, Vienna, Budapest. Therefore I know mankind! You thought I
was pretty, I suppose? I may be; others have thought so. And you
thought you would like to make my acquaintance without troubling
about the usual formalities