To begin with, though nearly related, she scarcely remembered them; to go on with, they were elderly people, and finally, as her father's daughter she must be in some sort prepared to entertain them.

She looked forward to seeing them as civilised people generally look forward to the first sight of civilised people, as though they were of the nature of an approaching physical discomfort--a tight shoe or a draughty window.

She was already unnaturally braced to receive them.

As she occupied herself in laying forks severely straight by the side of knives, she heard a man's voice saying gloomily: "On a dark night one would fall down these stairs head foremost," to which a woman's voice added, "And be killed." As she spoke the last words the woman stood in the doorway.

Tall, large-eyed, draped in purple shawls, Mrs.Ambrose was romantic and beautiful; not perhaps sympathetic, for her eyes looked straight and considered what they saw.