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 I've ever read and I'm just longing to see how it ends,' I said, fixing her with a glassy stare, and then beginning to read straight away.

I don't know if I exactly expected her to speak again after that. Anyway, I felt somehow surprised at her silence, and was weak enough to glance up. A momentary flash of hesitation and embarrassment was struggling with gratified pleasure on her face. It was the only look of the kind I ever saw there. I wondered. 'I value that speech of yours just cent per cent,' she said smiling. 'A compliment like that is downright fascinating when it comes out just unconscious and spontaneous.' I looked at her in amazement. What on earth could she mean? I suppose I looked a bit at sea. My fellow-traveller smiled her smile of horrible complacency. 'I wrote that book,' she said.

I suddenly felt that somehow that book had lost all interest for me straight away.

'What!' I cried, sitting up in my surprise, 'you are Argustus Strong?' She smiled again, satisfaction radiating all around her.

'I guess that's me,' she said.

I sank back into my corner again. If only she had shown a little more of the saving grace of modesty, whether she had it or not, I should have been quite pleased at meeting her. I always like meeting people who have made a name for themselves in any walk of life. It's stimulating. But I