As for Lawrence, he knew very well there was a trick beneath his invitation, but he could not at all make out why it had been played.  He had been given an admirable opportunity of offering himself to Miss March, but there was no reason, apparent to him, why this should have been done.

Miss Annie, watching her aunt very carefully, and speaking but seldom, quite promptly made up her mind in regard to the matter.  She knew very well the bitter opposition of the old woman to a marriage between Junius and Miss March; and saw, as plainly as she saw the lamp on the table, that Roberta had been brought here on purpose to be sacrificed to Mr Croft.  Everything had been made ready, the altar cleared, and, as well as the old lady’s grindstone would act, the knife sharpened.  “But,” said Miss Annie to herself, “she needn’t suppose that I am going to sit quiet and see all this going on, with Junius away off there in Washington, knowing nothing about any of it.”

Miss Roberta retired quite early to her room, having been fatigued by her long drive, and she was just about to put out her light when she heard a little knock at the door.  Opening it slightly, she saw there Junius Keswick’s cousin, who also appeared quite ready for bed.

“May I come in for a minute?” said Annie.

“Certainly,” replied Miss March, admitting her, and closing the door after her.

“I have something to tell you,” said the younger lady, admiring as she spoke, the length of her companion’s braided hair.  “I intended to keep it until to-morrow, but since I came up stairs I felt I could not let you sleep a night under the same roof with me without knowing it.  I am not Mrs Null.”

“What!” exclaimed Roberta, in a tone which made Annie lift up her hands and implore her not to speak so loud, for fear that her aunt should hear her.  “I know she hasn’t come up stairs yet, for she sits up dreadfully late, but she can hear things, almost anywhere.  No, I am not Mrs Null.  There is no such person as Mr Null, or, at least, he is a mere gaseous myth, whom I married for the sake of the protection his name gave me.”

“This is the most extraordinary thing I ever heard,” said Roberta.  “You must tell me all about it.”

“I don’t want to keep you up,” said Annie, “you must be tired.”

“I am not tired,” said Roberta, “for every particle of fatigue has flown away.”  And with this she made Annie sit down beside her on the lounge.  “Now you must tell me what this means,” she said.  “Can it be that your aunt does not know about it?”

“Indeed, she does not,” said Annie.  “I married Freddy Null in New York, for reasons which we need not talk of now, for that matter is all past and gone; but when I came here, I found almost immediately, that he would be more necessary to me in this house than anywhere else.”

“I cannot imagine,” said Roberta, “why a gaseous husband should be necessary to you here.”