n!"

"Blithering ass!"

The girl looked into the two indignant faces and held out both her
hands.

"You're very nice, both of you," she said gently. "But I'm afraid you
are going to be in a hopeless minority here as regards me."

They eyed her incredulously.

"You can't imagine," Sydney exclaimed, "that the people downstairs
will be such drivelling asses as to believe piffle like that."

Anna measured out the coffee. Her eyes were lit with a gleam of
humour. After all, it was really rather funny.

"Well, I don't know," she said thoughtfully. "I always notice that
people find it very easy to believe what they want to believe, and you
see I'm not in the least popular. Miss Ellicot, for instance,
considers me a most improper person."

"Miss Ellicot! That old cat!" Sydney exclaimed indignantly.

"Miss Ellicot!" Brendon echoed. "As if it could possibly matter what
such a person thinks of you."

Anna laughed outright.

"You are positively eloquent to-night--both of you," she declared.
"But, you see, appearances are very much against me. He knew my name,
and also that I had been living in Paris, and a man doesn't risk
claiming a girl for his wife, as a rule, for nothing. He was painfully
in earnest, too. I think you will find that his story will be
believed, whatever I say; and in any case, if he is going to stay on
here, I shall have to go away."

"Don't say that," Sydney begged. "We will see that he never annoys
you."

Anna shook her head.

"He is evidently a friend of Mrs. White's," she said, "and if he is
going to persist in this delusion, we cannot both remain here. I'd
rather not go," she added. "This is much the cheapest place I know of
where things are moderately clean, and I should hate rooms all by
myself. Dear me, what a nuisance it is to have a pseudo husband shot
down upon one from the skies."

"And such a beast of a one," Sydney remarked vigorously.

Brendon looked across the room at her thoughtfully.

"I wonder," he said, "is there anything we could do to help you to get
rid of him?"

"Can you think of anything?" Anna answered. "I can't! He appears to be
a most immovable person."

Brendon hesitated for a moment. He was a little embarrassed.

"There ought to be some means of getting at him," he said. "The fellow
seems to know your name, Miss Pellissier, and that you have lived in
Paris. Might we ask you if you have ever seen him, if you knew him at
all before this evening?"

She stoo