e longed for a liqueur, for anything that
would support him....

"Is there any brandy in the house?" he suddenly flung across the web of
Mrs. Bilton's words.

"Brandy, Mr. Twist?" she repeated, at this feeling altogether female,
for what an unusual thing for him to ask for,--"You're not sick?"

"With my coffee," murmured Mr. Twist, his mouth very slack, his head
drooping. "It's nice...."

"I'll go and see," said Mrs. Bilton, getting up briskly and going away
rattling a bunch of keys.

At once he looked down the garden. Anna-Felicitas was in the act of
putting her arm round Anna-Rose's shoulder, and Anna-Rose was
passionately disengaging herself. Yes. There was trouble there. He knew
there would be.

He gulped down more water.

Anna-Felicitas couldn't expect to go off like that for a whole morning
and give Anna-Rose a horrible fright without hearing about it. Besides,
the expression on her face wanted explaining,--a lot of explaining. Mr.
Twist didn't like to think so, but Anna-Felicitas's recent conduct
seemed to him almost artful. It seemed to him older than her years. It
seemed to justify the lawyer's scepticism when he described the twins to
him as children. That young man Elliott--

But here Mr. Twist started and lost his thread of thought, for looking
once more down the garden he saw that Anna-Felicitas was coming towards
the verandah, and that she was alone. Anna-Rose had vanished. Why had he
bothered about brandy, and let Mrs. Bilton go? He had counted, somehow,
on beginning with Anna-Rose....

He seized a cigarette and lit it. He tried vainly to keep his hand
steady. Before the cigarette was fairly plight there was Anna-Felicitas,
walking in beneath the awning.

"I'm glad you're alone," she said, "for I want to speak to you."

And Mr. Twist felt that his hour had come.

CHAPTER XXXVII

"Hadn't you better have lunch first?" he asked, though he knew from the
look on her face that she wouldn't. It was a very remarkable look. It
was as though an angel, dwelling in perfect bliss, had unaccountably got
its feet wet. Not more troubled than that; a little troubled, but not
more than that.

"No thank you," she said politely. "But if you've finished yours, do you
mind coming into the office? Because otherwise Mrs. Bilton--"

"She's fetching me some brandy," said Mr. Twist.

"I didn't know you drank," said Anna-Felicitas, even at this moment
interested. "But do you mind having it afterwards? Be