Disastrous would have been the result if a fire or a death had suddenly demanded something heroic of human nature, but tragedies come in the hungry hours.

Towards four o'clock the human spirit again began to lick the body, as a flame licks a black promontory of coal.

Mrs.Paley felt it unseemly to open her toothless jaw so widely, though there was no one near, and Mrs.Elliot surveyed her found flushed face anxiously in the looking-glass.
Half an hour later, having removed the traces of sleep, they met each other in the hall, and Mrs.Paley observed that she was going to have her tea.
"You like your tea too, don't you ?" she said, and invited Mrs.Elliot, whose husband was still out, to join her at a special table which she had placed for her under a tree.
"A little silver goes a long way in this country," she chuckled.
She sent Susan back to fetch another cup.
"They have such excellent biscuits here," she said, contemplating a plateful.

"Not sweet biscuits, which I don't like--dry biscuits.

.