"This is Mr. Dudley Horne's place, and you are Mr. Dudley Horne?"

"Yes."

"Then let me come in. I've come from--"

The voice dropped, and Max did not catch the rest.

"Stop! I'll speak to you here," said Dudley, trying to keep her in the little ante-room.

But the girl came straight in. It was Carrie.

CHAPTER XVII.

A SORCERESS.

Max was standing on the other side of the lamp, and Carrie did not see him. She announced her errand at once in a straightforward and matter-of-fact manner.

"d.i.c.k Barker's been nabbed for stealing a watch. You've got to get him off."

"What do you mean? I've got to get him off?" cried Dudley, indignantly.

Carrie laughed.

"It's the message I was told to give you; that's all."

"Well, take this message back: that I refuse to have anything to do with your pickpocket."

Carrie turned to the door.

"All right. I'm to say that to Mrs. Higgs?"

"Stop!" thundered Dudley.

Carrie paused, with her hand on the door.

"Did Mrs. Higgs send you?"

"Yes."

"Then wait a minute."

All the indignation, all the defiance, had gone from his tone. He looked anxious, haggard.

Carrie sat down like an automaton in the chair nearest to the door.

There was a silence of some minutes' duration when Carrie announced herself as a messenger from Mrs. Higgs.

Dudley, who had either forgotten the presence of Max or was past caring how much his friend learned, since he already knew so much, walked up and down between the fireplace and the bookcase on the opposite wall, evidently debating what he should do. Carrie never once raised her eyes from the carpet, but sat like a statue beside the door, apparently as indifferent as possible as to the message she should take back.

Max had risen from his seat and was standing where he could get a full view of her over the lamp on the dinner-table between them. Perhaps it was the yellow paper shade around the light which made the young girl's face look so ghastly, or the rusty black clothes she wore. A plain skirt, the same that she had worn when he saw her first, a black stuff cape of home-made pattern, and a big black straw hat which had evidently done duty throughout the summer; all were neatly brushed and clean, but well-worn and l.u.s.terless, and they heightened the appearance of deadly pallor which, struck Max so much.

Her eyes he could not see; her scarlet lips were tightly closed, and her face seemed to him to wear an air of dogged determination which helped him to understand how it was that she had escaped the perils of her unprotected girlhood. Certainly it would have taken a good deal of courage, impudence or alcoholic excitement to make a man address to this statuesque and cold-faced creature a flippant word.

She did not see Max, who kept so quiet that it was easy for her to overlook the presence of a third person in the room. He watched her intently, taking even more interest in her under these new conditions than he had done before. Would she retain her cold look and manner when he made his presence known to her, as he intended presently to do? The question was full of interest to him.

Presently Dudley stopped short in his walk, right in front of Carrie, who seemed, however, unconscious of or indifferent to the fact.

"Who are you?" he asked, abruptly.

Carrie looked up and surveyed him as if from a great distance.

"I don't know," she answered, rather quaintly, but evidently unconscious of the oddity of her own answer. There was a moment's pause, and then she asked, briskly:

"However, that doesn't matter to you, does it?"

"Well, yes, it does. You come here as a messenger. Now, I want to know your credentials."

"I don't know what you mean. I live with Mrs. Higgs. She makes me call her 'Granny.'"

Dudley at once became strongly interested.

"Live with her, do you, and call her Granny? I've never seen you when I have visited Mrs. Higgs."

"I've seen you, though. I've seen--"

She stopped.

Dudley's hand, the one Max could see from where he stood, moved convulsively. After another short pause, Carrie raised her head, and their eyes met. Each evidently saw something oddly interesting in the face of the other.

"I shall have to make some inquiries about you," said he at last.

"Very well. You can go and make them."

Her tone was matter-of-fact, but neither impudent nor defiant. She did not seem to care.

"This d.i.c.k Barker, who has been nabbed, as you elegantly express it, is some sweetheart of yours, I suppose? And you have persuaded Mrs. Higgs to send me this absurd message, asking me to appear for him?"

"No. He's nothing to me. Mrs. Higgs wants him got off, because if he's convicted he'll tell all he knows, or at least enough to set the police on."

"And what is that to me?"

Another pause, during which she looked down. Then Carrie raised her eyes again, and looked at him steadily.

"Oh, well, you know best."