Part 1 (1/2)

Anna the Adventuress

by E Phillips Oppenheim

ABOUT THE STORY

Annabel Pellissier, for reasons of her own, allows Sir John Ferringhall to believe that she is her sister Anna Anna lets the deception continue and has to bear the burden of her sister's reputation which, in Paris at any rate, is that of being a coquette

Endless complications ensue when both sisters return to London

This is one of the late E Phillips Oppenhei stories

ANNA THE ADVENTURESS

_Chapter I_

THE CARPET-KNIGHT AND THE LADY

The girl paused and steadied herself for a ate Her breath ca pants Her dainty shoes were soiled with dust and there was a great tear in her skirt Very slowly, very fearfully, she turned her head Her cheeks were the colour of chalk, her eyes were filled with terror If a cart were co, or those labourers in the field had heard, escape was ileaave her at once a more natural appearance So far as the eye could reach, the white level road, with its fringe of elm-trees, was empty Away off in the fields the blue-smocked peasants bent still at their toil

They had heard nothing, seen nothing A few more minutes, and she was safe

Yet before she turned once ht she schooled herself with an effort to look where it had happened A dark ht e, close under a tree from the trunk of which the bark had been torn and stripped A few yards further off so, a huddled-up heap of huain the chalky pallor spread even to her lips, her eyes became lit with the old terror She withdrew her head with a little ht Away up on the hillside was the little country railway station She fixed her eyes upon it and ran, keeping always as far as possible in the shadow of the hedge, gazing fearfully every now and then down along the valley for the white s with a crowd of excursionists who had come from the river on the other side, took her place in the train unnoticed She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes

Until the last moment she was afraid

Arrived in Paris she remembered that she had not the , but somehow or other she made her way as far as the Champs Elysees, and sank down upon an empty seat

She had not at first the power for concealment Her nerves were shattered, her senses dazed by this unexpected shock She sat there, a mark for boulevarders, the unconscious object of nulances Paris was full, and it was by no means a retired spot which she had found Yet she never once thought of changing it A person of soraces and mannerisms, she was for once in her life perfectly natural Terror had laid a paralyzing hand upon her, fear kept her allances which she was continually attracting

Then there calishe He was dressed with the uth the action were in soroomed, and yet--perhaps in contrast with the ht about hiirl, slackened his pace and looked at her again through his eye-glasses, looked over his shoulder after he had passed, and finally came to a dead stop He scratched his upper lip reflectively

It was a habit of his to talk to himself In the present case it did not matter, as there was no one else within earshot

”Dear ht to do She is English!+ I alish, and apparently in some distress I wonder----”

He turned slowly round He was inclined to be a good-natured person, and he had no nervous fears of receiving a snub The girl was pretty, and apparently a lady

”She cannot be aware,” he continued, ”that she isherself conspicuous It would surely be only common politeness to drop her a hint--a fellow countrywoman too I trust that she will not misunderstand me I believe--I believe that I must risk it”