She walked for a mile or more recklessly, close veiled, with swift level footsteps, though her brain was in a whirl and a horrible faintness all the time hovered about her. Then she called a hansom and drove home. * * * * * "Miss Pellissier," Brendon said gently, "I am afraid that some fresh trouble has come to you." She smiled at him cheerfully. "Am I dull?" she said. "I am sorry." "You could never be that," he answered, "but you are at least more serious than usual." "Perhaps," she said, "I am superstitious. This is my last week at the '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.