Let them go away--let them! And
then came the wild thought that it might be Something--the Something
which must happen when things were at their worst! And if it had
come and the house seemed to be empty! She did not walk down the
stairs, she ran. Her heart beat until she reached the door out of
breath and when she opened it stood their panting.
The people who waited upon the steps were strangers. They were
very nice looking and quite young--a man and a woman very perfectly
dressed. The man took a piece of paper out of his pocketbook and
handed it to her with an agreeable apologetic courtesy.
"I hope we have not called early enough to disturb you," he said.
"We waited until eleven but we are obliged to catch a train at
half past. It is an 'order to view' from Carson & Bayle." He added
this because Feather was staring at the paper.
Carson & Bayle were the agents they had rented the house from.
It was Carson & Bayle's collector Robert had met on the threshold
and sworn at two days before he had been taken ill. They were
letting the house over her head and she would be turned out into
the street?
The young man and woman finding themselves gazing at this exquisitely
pretty creature in exquisite mourning, felt themselves appallingly
embarrassed. She was plainly the widow Carson had spoken of. But
why did she open the door herself? And why did she look as if she
did not understand? Indignation against Carson & Bayle began to
stir the young man.
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