“Of course,” she said, steadying herself with an effort, “I never thought of that.  That makes it all simple. . . .  I hope lunch won’t be late.  I’m hungry.”

She sauntered to the door, but, directly she had closed it behind her, ran to her room, snatched up a hat, and rushed downstairs and out into Riverside Drive.  Just as she reached the street, Jimmy turned the corner.  She ran towards him, holding up her hands.

CHAPTER XIV

LORD WISBEACH

Jimmy halted in his tracks.  The apparition had startled him.  He had been thinking of Ann, but he had not expected her to bound out at him, waving her arms.

“What’s the matter?” he enquired.

Ann pulled him towards a side-street.

“You mustn’t go to the house.  Everything has gone wrong.”

“Everything gone wrong?  I thought I had made a hit.  I have with your uncle, anyway.  We parted on the friendliest terms.  We have arranged to go to the ball-game together to-morrow.  He is going to tell them at the office that Carnegie wants to see him.”

“It isn’t uncle Peter.  It’s aunt Nesta.”

“Ah, there you touch my conscience.  I was a little tactless, I’m afraid, with Ogden.  It happened before you came into the room.  I suppose that is the trouble?”

“It has nothing do with that,” said Ann impatiently.  “It’s much worse.  Aunt Nesta is suspicious.  She has guessed that you aren’t really Jimmy Crocker.”

“Great Scott!  How?”

“I tried to calm her down, but she still suspects.  So now she has decided to wait and see if Skinner, the butler, knows you.  If he doesn’t, she will know that she was right.”

Jimmy was frankly puzzled.

“I don’t quite follow the reasoning.  Surely it’s a peculiar kind of test.  Why should she think a man cannot be honest and true unless her butler knows him?  There must be hundreds of worthy citizens whom he does not know.”

“Skinner arrived from England a few days ago.  Until then he was employed by Mrs. Crocker.  Now do you understand?”

Jimmy stopped.  She had spoken slowly and distinctly, and there could be no possibility that he had misunderstood her, yet he scarcely believed that he had heard her aright.  How could a man named Skinner have been his step-mother’s butler?  Bayliss had been with the family ever since they had arrived in London.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, of course I’m sure.  Aunt Nesta told me herself.  There can’t possibly be a mistake, because it was Skinner who let her in when she called on Mrs. Crocker.  Uncle Peter told me about it.  He had a talk with the man in the hall and found that he was a baseball enthusiast—­”

A wild, impossible idea flashed upon Jimmy.  It was so absurd that he felt ashamed of entertaining it even for a moment.  But strange things were happening these times, and it might be . . .