dle is solved. I know all."

"You know all?"

"Your sister has told me."

"You have seen her--since last night?"

"Yes."

Anna shivered a little. She asked no further questions for the moment.
Ennison himself, with the recollection of Annabel's visit still fresh
in his mind, was for a moment constrained and ill at ease. When they
reached her rooms she stepped lightly out upon the pavement.

"Now you must go," she said firmly. "I have had a trying evening and I
need rest."

"You need help and sympathy more, Anna," he pleaded, "and I have the
right, yes I have the right to offer you both. I will not be sent
away."

"It is my wish to be alone," she said wearily. "I can say no more."

She turned and fitted the latchkey into the door. He hesitated for a
moment and then he followed her. She turned the gas up in her little
sitting-room, and sank wearily into an easy chair. On the mantelpiece
in front of her was a note addressed to her in Annabel's handwriting.
She looked at it with a little shudder, but she made no motion to take
it.

"Will you say what you have to say, please, and go. I am tired, and I
want to be alone."

He came and stood on the hearthrug close to her.

"Anna," he said, "you make it all indescribably hard for me. Will you
not remember what has passed between us? I have the right to take my
place by your side."

"You have no right at all," she answered. "Further than that, I am
amazed that you should dare to allude to those few moments, to that
single moment of folly. If ever I could bring myself to ask you any
favour, I would ask you to forget even as I have forgotten."

"Why in Heaven's name should I forget?" he cried. "I love you, Anna,
and I want you for my wife. There is nothing but your pride which
stands between us."

"There is great deal more," she answered coldly. "For one thing I am
going to marry David Courtlaw."

He stepped back as though he had received a blow.

"It is not possible," he exclaimed.

"Why not?"

"Because you are mine. You have told me that you cared. Oh, you cannot
escape from it. Anna, my love, you cannot have forgotten so soon."

He fancied that she was yielding, but her eyes fell once more upon
that fatal envelope, and her tone when she spoke was colder than ever.

"That was a moment of madness," she said. "I was lonely. I did not
know what I was saying."

"I will have your reason for this," he said. "I will have your true
reason."

She looked at