...
Feeling very much disturbed she turned and came back towards her two
visitors. They were now deep in talk, having evidently found a host of
common associations: "I find I ought to answer one of my letters at
once," she said. "Will you forgive me for a few moments?"
They both looked up, and smiled at her. She looked so pretty, so fragile,
so young, in her widow's mourning.
She went through into the dining-room. There was a writing-table in the
window, and there she sat down and put her head in her hands; she felt
unutterably forlorn, frightened too--she hardly knew of what. It had
given her such a horrible shock to learn that Piper was married....
Taking up a pen, she held it for a while poised in the air, staring out
of the window at the attractive though rather neglected old garden, in
which only this morning she had spent more than an hour with Jack
Tosswill.
Then, at last, she dipped her pen in the ink, and after making two rough
drafts, she decided on the following form of answer to Mrs. Piper,
telling herself that it might be read as addressed to either husband or
wife:--
Mrs. Crofton is very sorry to hear that Piper has lost his good
situation.
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