Edward Phillips Oppenheim

Anna the Adventuress Edward Phillips Oppenheim

Book Excerpt: ...dulgently."My dear child," he said, "with me you need have no apprehension. I am almost old enough to be your father."She looked at him with uplifted eyebrows--a look of whimsical incredulity. Sir John felt that after all forty-five was not so very old."That sounds quite absurd," she answered. "Yet it is my last evening, and I think--if you are sure that you would like to have me--that I will risk it.""We will go to a very quiet place," he assured her, "a place where I have often taken my own sisters. You will be wearing your travelling dress, and no doubt you would prefer it. Shall we say at half-past seven?"She rose from her chair."I will take a carriage," she said, "and fetch my things.""Let us say that Café Maston, in the Boulevard des Italiennes, at half-past seven then," he decided. "I shall be waiting for you there, and in the meantime, if you will help yourself--pray don't look like that. It is a very small affair, after all, and you can p....