Ann did not pause in her occupation of emptying a hatbox of its tissue-shrouded contents. Robin had ridden away almost immediately after breakfast, so she merely supposed that, having started early, he had returned early. But a minute later Maria was standing in the doorway of the room, her broad face red with the exertion of hurrying upstairs, her eyes blinking excitedly. "'Tis Mr. Coventry himself, miss," she announced. "He didn't inquire if any one was at home, but just followed me in and asked me to tell Master Robin he was here." Ann rose reluctantly from her knees, dusting her hands together. "All right, Maria, I'll go down and see him. Perhaps he can leave a message with me for Robin. I hope, though," she added with a faint sense of irritation, "that he isn't going to make a habit of dropping in here in the mornings." Only pausing to push back a stray lock of hair, she ran quickly downstairs and into the living-room. "I'm so sorry"--she began speaking almost as she crossed the threshold--"but my brother is out." With a stifled ejaculation the man standing in the shadow of the tall, old-fashioned chimneypiece wheeled round, and Ann found herself looking straight into the grey eyes of the Englishman from Montricheux. For a moment there was a silence--the silence of utter mutual astonishment, while Ann was wretchedly conscious of the flush that mounted slowly to her very temples. The man was the first to recover himself. "So," he said, "_you_ are Miss Lovell!" Something in his tone stung Ann into composure. "Yes," she replied coolly. "You don't sound altogether pleased at the discovery." "Pleased?" His eyes rested on her with a species of repressed annoyance. "It doesn't make much difference whether we're--either of us--pleased or not, does it?" His meaning appeared perfectly plain to Ann. For some reason which she could not fathom he found her appearance on the scene the very reverse of pleasing. "I don't see that it matters in any case," she replied frostily. "The fact that I happen to be your agent's sister doesn't compel you to see any more of me than you wish to." "True. And if I'd known you were here I wouldn't have come blundering in this morning." "I arrived yesterday," vouchsafed Ann. "Won't you sit down?" she added with perfunctory politeness. She seated herself, and in obedience to her gesture he mechanically followed suit. "Yes, you were expected to-day, weren't you? I'd forgotten," he said abstractedly. No one particularly enjoys being assured that they have been forgotten, and Ann's eyes sparkled with suppressed indignation. "Can I give my brother any message for you?" she asked stiffly. All at once he smiled--that sudden, singularly sweet smile of his which transformed the harsh lines of his face and which seemed to have so little in common with his habitual brusqueness.