The musical voice had lost nothing of its imperiousness, but for one instant the lips parted, affording a fleeting glimpse of pearl beyond the coral.

Her sudden change of front was bewildering.  Now, she entered the lift and I followed her.  As we ascended side by side I found it impossible to believe that this dainty white figure was that of an associate of the Hashishin, that of a creature of the terrible Hassan of Aleppo.  Yet that she was the same girl who, a few days after my return from the East, had shown herself conversant with the plans of the murderous fanatics was beyond doubt.  Her accent on that occasion clearly had been assumed, with what object I could not imagine.  Then, as we quitted the lift and entered a cosy lounge, my companion seated herself upon a Chesterfield, signing to me to sit beside her.

As I did so she lay back smiling, and regarding me from beneath her black lashes.  Thus, half veiled, her great violet eyes were most wonderful.

“Now, sir,” she said softly, “explain yourself.”

“Then you persist in pretending that we have not met before?”

“There is no occasion for pretence,” she replied lightly; and I found myself comparing her voice with her figure, her figure with her face, and vainly endeavouring to compute her age.  Frankly, she was bewildering—­this lovely girl who seemed so wholly a woman of the world.

“This fencing is useless.”

“It is quite useless!  Come, I know New York, London, and I know Paris, Vienna, Budapest.  Therefore I know mankind!  You thought I was pretty, I suppose?  I may be; others have thought so.  And you thought you would like to make my acquaintance without troubling about the usual formalities?  You adopted a singularly brutal method of achieving your object, but I love such insolence in a man.  Therefore I forgave you.  What have you to say to me?”

I perceive that I had to deal with a bold adventuress, with a consummate actress, who, finding herself in a dangerous situation, had adopted this daring line of defence, and now by her personal charm sought to lure me from my purpose.

But with the scimitar of Hassan of Aleppo stretched over me, with the dangers of the night before me, I was in no mood for a veiled duel of words, for an interchange of glances in thrust and parry, however delightful such warfare might have been with so pretty an adversary.

For a long time I looked sternly into her eyes; but their violet mystery defied, whilst her red-lipped smile taunted me.

“Unfortunately,” I said, with slow emphasis, “you are protected by my promise, made on the occasion of our previous meeting.  But murder has been done, so that honour scarcely demands that I respect my promise further—­”

She raised her eyebrows slightly.

“Surely that depends upon the quality of the honour!” she said.

“I believe you to be a member of a murderous organization, and unless you can convince me that I am wrong, I shall act accordingly.”