At a quarter to four I received a note from Blakely saying it would be impossible for him to come in to tea as he had planned.

It was the first time he had ever broken an engagement with me, and I was a wee bit unhappy over it, though I knew, of course, there must be some good reason why he couldn't come.

Still, his absence rather put me out of humor with tea, so I sent Valentine for a box of chocolates.

When she returned I sat down with them and a novel, prepared to spend the rest of the afternoon alone.
The novel wasn't half as silly as some I've read--the hero reminded me of Blakely--and the chocolates were unusually good; I was having a much better time than I had expected.

Then some one knocked at the door.
"Bother!" I thought.