"Anna!"
Anna kissed her sister and nodded to her aunt. Then she sat
down--uninvited--and looked from one to the other curiously. There was
something about their greeting and the tone of Annabel's exclamation
which puzzled her.
"I wish," she said, "that you would leave off looking at me as though
I were something grisly. I am your very dutiful niece, aunt, and your
most devoted sister, Annabel. I haven't murdered any one, or broken
the law in any way that I know of. Perhaps you will explain the state
of panic into which I seem to have thrown you."
Annabel, who was looking very well, and who was most becomingly
dressed, moved to a seat from which she could command a view of the
road outside. She was the first to recover herself. Her aunt, a faded,
anaemic-looking lady of somewhat too obtrusive gentility, was still
sitting with her hand pressed to her heart.
Annabel looked up and down the empty street, and then turned to her
sister.
"For one thing, Anna," she remarked, "we had not the slightest idea
that you had left, or were leaving Paris. You did not say a word about
it last week, nor have you written. It is quite a descent from the
clouds, isn't it?"
"I will accept that," Anna said, "as accounting for the surprise.
Perhaps you will now explain the alarm."
Miss Pellissier was beginning to recover herself. She too at once
developed an anxious interest in the street outside.
"I am sure, Anna," she said, "I do not see why we should conceal the
truth from you. We are expecting a visit from Sir John Ferringhall at
any moment. He is coming here to tea."
"Well?" Anna remarked calmly.
"Sir John," her aunt repeated, with thin emphasis, "is coming to see
your sister."
Anna drummed impatiently with her fingers against the arm of her
chair.
"Well!" she declared good-humouredly. "I shan't eat him."
Miss Pellissier stiffened visibly.
"This is not a matter altogether for levity, Anna," she said. "Your
sister's future is at stake. I imagine that even you must realize that
this is of some importance."
Anna glanced towards her sister, but the latter avoided her eyes.
"I have always," she admitted calmly, "taken a certain amount of
interest in Annabel's future. I should like to know how it is
concerned with Sir John Ferringhall, and how my presence intervenes."
"Sir John," Miss Pellissier said impressively, "has asked your sister
to be his wife. It is a most wonderful piece of good fortune, as I
suppose you will be prepared to admit. The Ferringhalls are of course
without any pretence at family, but Sir John is a very rich man, and
will be able to give Annabel a very enviable position in the world.
The settlements which he has spoken of, too, are most munificent. No
wonder we are anxious that nothing should happen to make him change
his mind."