"Will you please answer the question--in my note ?" He bowed a little coldly, but he made no remark as to her intrusion.

"I have already," he said, "given my answer to Mr.Brooks.The name which you mention is altogether unknown to me, nor have I ever visited the place you speak of.

You have apparently been misled by a chance likeness." "It is a very wonderful one," she said, slowly, keeping her eyes fixed upon him.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"I regret," he said, "that you should have had your journey for nothing.
I can, I presume, be of no further use to you." "I do not regret my journey here," she answered.

"I could not rest until I had seen you closely, face to face, and asked you that question.
You deny then that you were ever called Philip Ferringshaw ?" "Most assuredly," he answered, curtly.
"That is very strange," she said.
"Strange?
"Yes.

It is very strange because I am perfectly certain that you were." He took up his cue and commenced chalking it in a leisurely manner.
"My dear young lady," he said, "you are; I understand, a friend of Mr.
Brooks, and are therefore entitled to some amount of consideration from me.