"I'll go upstairs and take off my things," she said wearily. "Bring me a
cup of tea in my bedroom--I don't want anything to eat--and then I'll
come down and see this person." She forced herself to add, "I suppose
it's a Mrs. Piper?"
The girl answered at once, "She didn't give her name, ma'am. She just
said that she wanted to see you, and that it was urgent. She's not got
very long; she wants to catch the six o'clock train from Telford. She
wouldn't believe at first that you wasn't in."
Enid found some comfort in those words, and she made up her mind that she
would linger upstairs as long as she possibly could, so as to cut short
her coming interview with the tiresome young woman. After all there was
very little to say. She had behaved in a kind and generous manner to her
late husband's servant, and she had already said she would do her best to
help him again.
When she got upstairs she lit the two high brass candlesticks on the
dressing-table, and then, after she had taken off her hat and long black
woollen coat, she sat down in her easy-chair by the wood fire. Soon there
came a familiar rap and a welcome cup of tea.
She was sipping it, luxuriously, when there suddenly came a very
different kind of rap on the door.
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