et voice.

The girl obeyed, and the ice-cold wine cooled the fire in blood and
nerves.

"You have been splendid," Smith encouraged her. "I know you won't fail me
now."

"I promise you I will not!" returned Annesley. "The worst is over. I feel
ready for anything."

"How can I thank you?" he murmured. "If I had all the rest of my life to
do it in, instead of a few minutes, it wouldn't be too much. You were
perfect in your manner, not anxious, only annoyed; just the right air for
a self-respecting Mrs. Smith."

They both laughed, and Annesley was surprised that she could laugh
naturally and gaily. Presently she laughed again, when Mr. Smith remarked
that she had missed her vocation in not being an actress--she, the
country mouse, who had hardly been inside a theatre.

The two lingered over their dinner, watched with impatience by the men
at the other table, who had ordered only one dish and paid for it
immediately, that they might be ready for anything at an instant's
notice. They had also a small bottle of wine, which they sipped
abstemiously as an excuse to remain after their food had been eaten.

When at last Mr. and Mrs. Smith had finished their _bombe surprise_, and
trifled with some fruit, Annesley said: "Evidently they don't care how
long they have to wait! I suppose there's nothing for us to do but to
go?"

"Oh, yes, there's still something," said Smith. "We'll have coffee in the
foyer, and see what the enemy's next move is. It would be a mistake to
let the brutes believe they're frightening us."

Annesley agreed in silence; but in her heart she was glad to lengthen out
the adventure. Soon she would have to creep back to her dull modern
substitute for a moated grange, and after that--not "the deluge"; nothing
so exciting: extinction.

As they walked out of the restaurant together the girl glanced up at the
dark profile, mysterious as a stranger's, yet familiar as a friend's. The
man had told her nothing about himself except that he was in danger, and
had given no hint as to what that danger was; but the girl's heart was
warm with belief in him. If there were a question of crime, the crime was
not his. His superiority over those creatures must be moral as well as
physical and social.

By an odd coincidence, Mr. Smith steered for the sofa in the corner
whence a man had stared from behind an open newspaper at a tall, lonely
girl in gray, earlier in the evening. Annesley knew nothing of this
coincidence,