NE

FACE TO FACE

On opening the door of the taxi I stood amazed to find that the
occupant was not a man--but a woman.

It was Sylvia!

She started at sight of me. Her countenance blanched to the lips as
she drew back and sat erect, a cry of dismay escaping her lips.

"You!" I gasped, utterly dumbfounded.

"Why--Mr. Biddulph!" she cried, recovering herself in a moment and
stretching forth her small gloved hand; "fancy meeting you like this!"

What words I uttered I scarcely knew. This sudden transformation of
the scoundrel Forbes into Sylvia Pennington held me bewildered. All I
could imagine was that Sylvia must have been awaiting the man in
another cab close to the bank, and that, in the course of our chase,
we had confused the two taxis. Forbes had succeeded in turning away
into some side street, while we had followed the cab of his companion.

She had actually awaited him in another cab while he had entered the
bank and cashed the stolen cheque!

My taxi-driver, when he saw that a lady, and not a man, occupied the
fugitive cab, drew back, returning to his seat.

"Do you know!" exclaimed the girl, with wonderful calmness, "only
yesterday I was thinking of you, and wondering whether you were in
London!"

"And only yesterday, too, Miss Pennington, I also was thinking of
you," I said meaningly.

She was dressed very quietly in dead black, which increased the
fairness of her skin and hair, wearing a big black hat and black
gloves. She was inexpressibly smart, from the thin gauzy veil to the
tips of her tiny patent-leather shoes, with a neat waist and a figure
that any woman might envy. Indeed, in her London attire she seemed
even smarter than she had appeared on the terrace beside the blue
Italian lake.

"Where is your father?" I managed to ask.

"Oh!--well, he's away just now. He was with me in London only the
other day," she replied. "But, as you know, he's always travelling."
Then she added: "I'm going into this shop a moment. Will you wait for
me? I'm so pleased to see you again, and looking so well. It seems
really ages since we were at Gardone, doesn't it?" and she smiled that
old sweet smile I so well remembered.

"I'll wait, of course," I replied, and, assisting her out, I watched
her pass into the big drapery establishment. Then I idled outside amid
the crowd of women who were dawdling before the attractive windows, as
is the feminine habit.

If it had been she who had rescued me from deat