e
'Unusual,' you know. We begin rehearsing on Monday at the
'Garrick'."

"Surely," he protested, "the change is all in favour of your own
inclinations. It is your own choice, isn't it?"

She nodded.

"Yes. But I believe that Mr. Earles thinks I am a little mad, and
between ourselves I am not sure about it myself. It is easy enough to
sing these little chansons in an original way--it requires a very
different sort of ability to succeed on the stage."

"You have it," he declared confidently.

She laughed altogether in her old manner.

"I wonder how it is," she exclaimed, "that my friends have so much
more confidence in me than I have in myself."

"They know you better," he declared.

"I am afraid," she answered, "that one's friends can judge only of the
externals, and the things which matter, the things inside are realized
only by oneself--stop."

She laid her fingers upon his arm, and they both stood still. They had
turned into the street, on the opposite side of which were the flats
where Anna lived. Glancing idly up at her own window as they had swung
round the corner she had seen a strange thing. The curtains which she
had left drawn were open, and the electric lights were turned on.
Then, even as they stood there, the room was plunged into darkness.

"There is someone in my rooms," Anna said.

"Is it your maid?" he asked.

"I have given her two days' holiday," Anna answered. "She has gone
down into the country."

"And no one else--has a key?"

"I believe," she said, "that that man must have one. I am safe while I
am there, for I have had bolts fitted everywhere, and a pane of glass
in the front door. But I am always afraid that he may get in while I
am away. Look! Is that some one coming out?"

The front door of the flats stood open, and through it a woman, slim
and veiled, passed on to the pavement and turned with swift footsteps
in the opposite direction. Anna watched her with curious eyes.

"Is it any one you know?" Brendon asked.

"I am not sure," Anna answered. "But, of course, she may have come
from one of the other flats."

"Perhaps," he said, "you had better let me have your key, and I will
go up and explore."

"We will go together," she answered.

They crossed the street, and entering the front door passed up the
outside stone steps of the flat. Anna herself opened the hall door.
They stood for a moment in the passage and listened. Silence! Then
Anna clutched her companion's arm.