Edward, who received apparently a larger meal on Sundays than at ordinary times, chattered happily to himself, and Maggie heard him say complacently, "Poor Parrot ?--Poor Parrot.

How do you do?
How do you do ?" "Service is at eleven o'clock, dear," said Aunt Anne.

"We leave the house at ten minutes to eleven." Maggie, not knowing what to do with the hour in front of her, went up to her bedroom, found the servant making the bed, came down into the drawing-room and sat in a dark corner under a large bead mat, that, nailed to the wall, gave little taps and rustlings as though it were trying to escape.
She felt that she should be doing something, but what?
She sat there, straining her ear for sounds.

"One always seems to be expecting some one in this house," she thought.

The weather that had been bright had now changed and little gusts of rain beat upon the windows.