its wearer, he put the flower away in a letter-case in
an inner breast pocket of his coat.

For once Annesley was face to face with romance, and even though she
would presently go back to the old round (since the adventure she came
out to meet had failed), she was stirred to a wild gladness in this
other adventure. The _hors d'oeuvres_ appeared; then soup, and wine,
which Mr. Smith begged her to taste.

"Drink luck for me," he insisted. "You and you alone can bring it."

Annesley drank. And the champagne filliped colour to her cheeks.

"Now we'll go on and think out the problem of what may happen at your
door--if Fate takes me there," the man said. "Your old friend's sailor
son is no use to me. He can't be whisked back from the North Pole to
London for my benefit. Perhaps I may be an acquaintance of Archdeacon
Smith's, mayn't I, if worst comes to worst? I've been dining there, and
brought you back in a taxi. Will that do? If there are fibs to tell, I'll
tell them myself and spare you if possible."

"After all I've told to-night, one or two more can't matter," said
Annesley. "They won't hurt Mrs. Ellsworth. It's the other danger that's
more worrying--the danger from those men. I've thought of something that
may help if they follow us to Torrington Square. They may ask a policeman
whose house we've gone into, and find out it's Mrs. Ellsworth's, before
you can get away. So it will be better not to tell them it's _yours_. You
can be visiting. There is a Mr. Smith who comes sometimes from America,
where he lives, though he's not American. Even the policemen who have
that beat may have heard of him from Mrs. Ellsworth's servants. There's
a room kept always ready for him, and called 'Mr. Smith's room.'"

"That does help," said the man. "It's clever and kind of you to rack your
brains for me. A Mr. Smith from America! It's easy for me to play that
part, I'm from America. Perhaps you've guessed that?"

"But you're very different from Mrs. Ellsworth's Mr. Smith," Annesley
warned him, hastily. "He's middle-aged, eccentric, and not good-looking.
He comes to England for his 'nerves' when he has worked too hard and
tired himself out. I think he's rich; and once he was robbed in some big
hotel, so he likes to stay at a plain sort of house where there's no
danger. He has a horror of burglars, and won't even stop at the
Archdeacon's since they had a burglary a few years ago. He pays Mrs.
Ellsworth for his room, I believe. A funny