"Miss Jenny will be his clew: he couldn't miss her," said Varney. "Let me go on, while I have time. Miss Carstairs, it is not fair to either of us to let matters stay like this. In the cottage last night, you forced me to let you think I was--another man--" "That is absurd," she said. "How could I possibly force you to say what was not--the fact?" "Did I really say anything that was not--the fact? I tried particularly not to. But I did let you deceive yourself about it: that is quite true and I'm sorry. I did it because--well, because if I hadn't done it, you were not going to let me walk home with you." She leaned against the little desk at which the Academy man sat to sell tickets, and hesitated, almost imperceptibly. "Then why," she asked, "should you wish to _undeceive_ me now?" "You know why," he answered. "If I don't, something tells me that you are not going to speak to me any more." Her silence conceded the truth of this. It began to be evident how difficult he had made matters for himself. Varney laughed. "I am determined to make you believe me, yet just how am I to go about it? It's rather an absurd position, when you come to think of it--this arguing with somebody as to who one is. Suppose I were that fellow, Miss Carstairs. How could I possibly hope to come back to my old hometown and persuade people to believe that I am somebody else?" Her eyes had wandered out through the little grated window, and she made no reply. "You see how preposterous that would be. A mere resemblance is not enough to condemn a man upon, Miss Carstairs." She turned her head with a sudden gesture of annoyance. "What difference can it possibly make whether I speak to you or not, Mr. St--" "_Don't!_" he interrupted swiftly. "You know my name. You shall not call me by that one." Hare's neat pink face appeared at the ticket-window, for all the world like a belated theatre-goer, anxious for several in the orchestra. "Ah, Mary! There you are! Whenever you are ready--" "I have been waiting for you a long time," said Miss Carstairs. "It was so splendid, Mr. Hare! Is Jenny there? We'll go at once." She turned to Varney, cool as a dewy rose, and came forward a short step. "I--I must say this before I go: has no one told you that you are in danger here?" Under her tone and her look, his plan of being the easy master of the situation grew increasingly difficult. "Everybody has told me," he said rather shortly. "It's gotten to be a bore." "Then--won't you--won't you please go away before--anything happens?" "I am going on Thursday afternoon," he answered, stung by her beauty, which was so remote, and by the sudden compassion in her voice. "My engagements will keep me here till that day, you remember? I promise you, since you are so good as to interest yourself in the matter, that I shall leave Hunston directly after that--" "Your engagements on Thursday?" she repeated, looking away. "Are--you speaking of--"