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Updated: July 1, 2025
We leave England to-night. "Ever yours, "ANNABEL. Anna moved softly to the window, and threw up the sash. Ennison had disappeared. The man opened his eyes and looked curiously about him. "Where am I?" he muttered. Courtlaw, who was sitting by the bedside, bent over him. "You are in a private room of St. Felix Hospital," he said. "Hospital? What for? What's the matter with me?"
"Hainault was Celeste's friend, and Celeste was Annabel's enemy," Courtlaw said. "It was a plot amongst them all to humiliate her." "Then she has never been my wife." "Never for a second. She is the wife now of another man." Hill closed his eyes. For fully five minutes he lay quite motionless. Then he opened them again suddenly, to find Courtlaw still by his side.
"The ones Cariolus did for me." "The posters at least," Anna answered quietly, "I have some claim to. You know very well that you took from my easel David Courtlaw's study of me, and sent it to Cariolus. You denied it at the time but unfortunately I have proof. Mr. Courtlaw found the study in Cariolus' studio." Annabel laughed hardly. "What did it matter?" she cried.
And then, as she stood there, with the fragments of the torn canvas at her feet, some even caught upon her skirt, the door was thrown open, and a girl entered humming a light tune. The newcomer stopped short upon the threshold. "Anna! What tragedy has happened, little sister? No lights, no supper, no coffee and, above all, no Mr. Courtlaw. How dreary it all looks. Never mind.
Courtlaw is looking after you, Miss Pellissier," she said. "Admirably, thank you," Anna answered. The young lady with frizzled hair, whom Brendon had pointed out to her as Miss Ellicot, leaned forward from her hostess's side. She had very frizzy hair indeed, very black eyebrows, a profusion of metallic adornments about her neck and waist, and an engaging smile.
I could be presented as Meysey Hill. We were alike. He was a millionaire. And I passed myself off as Meysey Hill, and since then I haven't had a minute's peace. God help me." Courtlaw was alarmed at the man's pallor. "You mustn't talk any more," he said, "but I want you to listen to me just for a moment. The doctor will be here to see you in five minutes.
"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.
"I think," he said, "that I would fetch any one whom he has asked to see. His condition is not unfavourable, but there may be a relapse at any moment." So only a few minutes after Ennison's departure, while Anna stood indeed with her sister's open letter still in her hand, Courtlaw drove up in hot haste. She opened the door to him herself. "Will you come round to the hospital?" he asked.
"Miss Pellissier," he said, "I came here this afternoon hoping particularly to see you for a few moments before you signed that contract." She shook her head. "We may just as well have our talk afterwards," she said, "and I need not keep poor Mr. Earles waiting." Courtlaw suddenly interposed. "May I be allowed to say," he declared, "that I came here with the same intention."
"Then, whoever he may be, he is not Meysey Hill," Courtlaw said. "That young man was giving a luncheon party to a dozen friends at the Café de Paris to-day. I sat within a few feet of him. I feel almost inclined to regret the fact." "Why?" she asked. "If one half of the stories about Meysey Hill are true," he answered, "I would not stretch out my little finger to save his life."
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