Sir John looked from one to the other of the two sisters. His face
darkened.
"My arrival appears to be opportune," he said stiffly. "I was hoping
to be able to secure a few minutes' conversation with you, Miss
Pellissier. Perhaps my wife has already prepared you for what I wish
to say."
"Not in the least," Anna answered calmly. "We have scarcely mentioned
your name."
Sir John coughed. He looked at Annabel, whose face was buried in her
hands--he looked back at Anna, who was regarding him with an easy
composure which secretly irritated him.
"It is concerning--our future relations," Sir John pronounced
ponderously.
"Indeed!" Anna answered indifferently. "That sounds interesting."
Sir John frowned. Anna was unimpressed. Elegant, a little scornful,
she leaned slightly against the back of a chair and looked him
steadily in the eyes.
"I have no wish," he said, "to altogether ignore the fact that you are
my wife's sister, and have therefore a certain claim upon me."
Anna's eyes opened a little wider, but she said nothing.
"A claim," he continued, "which I am quite prepared to recognize. It
will give me great pleasure to settle an annuity for a moderate amount
upon you on certain conditions."
"A--what?" Anna asked.
"An annuity--a sum of money paid to you yearly or quarterly through my
solicitors, and which you can consider as a gift from your sister. The
conditions are such as I think you will recognize the justice of. I
wish to prevent a repetition of any such errand as I presume you have
come here upon this evening. I cannot have my wife distressed or
worried."
"May I ask," Anna said softly, "what you presume to have been the
nature of my errand here this evening?"
Sir John pointed to Annabel, who was as yet utterly limp.
"I cannot but conclude," he said, "that your errand involved the
recital to my wife of some trouble in which you find yourself. I
should like to add that if a certain amount is needed to set you free
from any debts you may have contracted, in addition to this annuity,
you will not find me unreasonable."
Anna glanced momentarily towards her sister, but Annabel neither spoke
nor moved.
"With regard to the conditions I mentioned," Sir John continued,
gaining a little confidence from Anna's silence, "I think you will
admit that they are not wholly unreasonable. I should require you to
accept no employment whatever upon the stage, and to remain out of
England."
Anna's demeanour was still imperturbable, her marble pallor untinged
by the slightest flush of colour. She regarded him coldly, as though
wondering whether he had anything further to say. Sir John hesitated,
and then continued.
"I trust," he said, "that you will recognize the justice of these
conditions. Under happier circumstances nothing would have given me
more pleasure than to have offered you a home with your sister. You
yourself, I am sure, recognize how impossible you have made it for me
now to do anything of the sort. I may say that the amount of the
annuity I propose to allow you is two hundred a year."