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"I heard the other day that she'd been taken in by some cad of a fellow who was cutting a great dash in Paris, personating Meysey Hill, the great railway man. Anyhow, she's disappeared for some reason or other. Perhaps Ferringhall has pensioned her off. He's the sort of johnny who wouldn't care about having a sister-in-law on the loose."
"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."
"Never," he exclaimed vehemently. "You are mine, Annabel, and nothing shall ever make me give you up." "But it is too late," she declared. "You have no right to hold me to a bargain which on your side was a lie. I consented to become Mrs. Meysey Hill never your wife." "What do you mean by too late?" he demanded. "There is some one else whom I care for!" He laughed hardly.
"They wanted me to identify some one whom I had certainly never seen before in my life, and to tell you the truth, they were positively rude to me because I could not. Have you ever heard the name of Meysey Hill?" "Meysey Hill?" He repeated it after her, and she knew at once from his tone and his quick glance into her face that the name possessed some significance for him.
She spoke with a certain odd deliberation carefully chosen words which fell like drops of ice upon the man who sat listening. "Before I met you I was deluded into receiving upon friendly terms a man named Hill, who passed himself off as Meysey Hill the railway man, but who was in reality an Englishman in poor circumstances.
"I have never seen him in my life," she said to the official. "I have not the least idea who he is." Just then the man's eyes opened. He saw the girl, and sprang up in bed. "Annabel at last," he shouted. "Where have you been? All these hours I have been calling for you. Annabel, I was lying. Who says that I am not Meysey Hill? I was trying to scare you. See, it is on my cards M. Hill, Meysey Hill.
I was afraid that I might be called upon as a witness. That is why I was so anxious to leave Paris. The man who came to our rooms, you know, that night was his friend." "The good God!" Anna murmured, herself shaken with fear. "You were married to him!" "It could not be legal," Annabel moaned. "It couldn't be. I thought that I was marrying Meysey Hill, not that creature.
Don't touch the handle, Annabel! Curse the thing, you've jammed it now. Do you want to kill us both? Stop the thing. Stop it!" Anna stepped back bewildered, but the man held out his arms to her. "I tell you it was a lie!" he shouted wildly. "Can't you believe me? I am Meysey Hill. I am the richest man in England. I am the richest man in the world. You love money. You know you do, Annabel.
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.
Never mind, I've got plenty. We'll go to the shops. Diamonds! You shall have all that you can carry away, sacks full if you like. Pearls too! I mean it. I tell you I'm Meysey Hill, the railway man. Don't leave me. Don't leave me in this beastly thing. Annabel! Annabel!" His voice became a shriek. In response to an almost imperative gesture from the nurse, Anna laid her hand upon his.
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