"What's that young lady's name--girl in dark brown, stranger here?"
Mr. Earles asked sharply.
The youth produced a crumpled-up card from his waistcoat pocket. A
sense of impending disaster was upon him. Mr. Earles glanced at it,
and his eyes flashed with anger.
"You blithering idiot!" he exclaimed.
Mr. Earles strode into the waiting-room. His face was wreathed in
smiles, his be-ringed hand was cordially outstretched.
"My dear Miss Pellissier," he said impressively, "this is an
unexpected pleasure. Come in! Come in, do. I must apologize for my
young puppy of a clerk. If I had known that you were here you should
not have been kept waiting for a second."
It took a good deal to surprise Anna, but it was all she could do to
follow Mr. Earles with composure into the inner room. There was a
little murmur of consternation from the waiting crowd, and the florid
young woman showed signs of temper, to which Mr. Earles was absolutely
indifferent. He installed Anna in a comfortable easy chair, and placed
his own between her and the door.
"Come," he said, "this is capital, capital. It was only a few months
ago that I told you you must come to London, and you only laughed at
me. Yet here you are, and at precisely the right moment, too.
By-the-bye," he added, in a suddenly altered tone, "I hope, I
trust--that you have not entered into any arrangements with any one
here?"
"I--oh no!" Anna said, a little faintly. "I have made no arrangements
as yet--none at all."
Mr. Earles recovered his spirits.
"Excellent!" he exclaimed. "Your arrival is really most opportune. The
halls are on the lookout for something new. By-the-bye, do you
recognize that?"
Anna looked and gasped. An enormous poster almost covered one side of
the wall--_the_ poster. The figure of the girl upon it in plain black
dress, standing with her hands behind her, was an undeniable and
astonishing likeness of herself. It was her figure, her style of
dress, her manner of arranging the hair. Mr. Earles regarded it
approvingly.
"A wonderful piece of work," he declared. "A most wonderful likeness,
too. I hope in a few days, Miss Pellissier, that these posters will be
livening up our London hoardings."
Anna leaned back in the chair and laughed softly. Even this man had
accepted her for "Alcide" without a moment's question. Then all the
embarrassments of the matter flashed in upon her. She was suddenly
grave.
"I suppose, Mr. Earles," she said, "that if I were to tell you that
although that poster was designed from a rough study of me, and
although my name is Pellissier, that nevertheless, I am not 'Alcide'
would you believe me?"
"You can try it on, if you like," Mr. Earles remarked genially. "My
only answer would be to ask you to look at that mirror and then at the
poster. The poster is of 'Alcide.' It's a duplicate of the French
one."