l
enough to be put off like this."

She glanced at Brendon, who stood by her side, tall and threatening.
Her eyebrows were lifted in expostulation. A faint, delightfully
humorous smile parted her lips.

"After all," she said, "if this person will not be reasonable, I am
afraid----"

It was enough. A hand of iron fell upon the scowling young man's
shoulder.

"Be so good as to stand away from that door at once, sir," Brendon
ordered.

Hill lost a little of his truculency. He knew very well that his
muscles were flabby, and his nerve by no means what it should be. He
was no match for Brendon. He yielded his place and struck instead with
his tongue. He turned to Mrs. White.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, to seem the cause of any disturbance, but this," he
pointed to Anna, "is my wife."

The sensation produced was gratifying enough. The man's statement was
explicit, and spoken with confidence. Every one looked at Anna. For a
moment she too had started and faltered in her exit from the room. Her
fingers clutched the side of the door as though to steady herself. She
caught her breath, and her eyes were lit with a sudden terror. She
recovered herself, however, with amazing facility. Scarcely any one
noticed the full measure of her consternation. From the threshold she
looked her accuser steadily and coldly in the face.

"What you have said is a ridiculous falsehood," she declared
scornfully. "I do not even know who you are."

She swept out of the room. Hill would have followed her, but Mrs.
White and Miss Ellicot laid each a hand upon his arm, one on either
side. The echoes of his hard, unpleasant laugh reached Anna on her way
upstairs.

* * * * *

It was a queer little bed-sitting-room almost in the roof, with a
partition right across it. As usual Brendon lit the candles, and
Sydney dragged out the spirit-lamp and set it going. Anna opened a
cupboard and produced cups and saucers and a tin of coffee.

"Only four spoonsful left," she declared briskly, "and your turn to
buy the next pound, Sydney."

"Right!" he answered. "I'll bring it to-morrow. Fresh ground, no
chicory, and all the rest of it. But--Miss Pellissier!"

"Well?"

"Are you quite sure that you want us this evening? Wouldn't you rather
be alone? Just say the word, and we'll clear out like a shot."

She laughed softly.

"You are afraid," she said, "that the young man who thinks that he is
my husband has upset me."

"Madma