Malcolm had promised to be there at the same time, and they would all go back together to Queen's Gate for the remainder of the day.

It so happened that Mrs.
Richardson had planned one of her favourite shopping expeditions for the same day, and in the course of the afternoon the hansom she had chartered drew up at a shop exactly opposite the gallery, where at that very moment Anna, Cedric, and Malcolm were coming down the staircase to join Mrs.Herrick, who was waiting for them in her carriage.
Leah, who had not recovered her normal strength since her attack of influenza, was excessively tried by all the noise and bustle of the West End, and begged to remain in the hansom while Mrs.Richardson finished her purchases.

When Mrs.Richardson came out of the shop a quarter of an hour later, the handsome carriage with its pair of bay horses had driven off, and Leah was leaning back in the hansom looking white as death, with a pained, startled expression in her beautiful eyes.
Mrs.Richardson told the man to drive to the station.

Then she took the girl's hand kindly.

"What is it, my dear ?" she said in a motherly voice.