For half an hour there had been perfect silence in the room.

The cat upon the hearthrug slept profoundly; the fire was sunk to a still red glow; the cold light of the autumn afternoon thickened into dusk.
Lilian seemed to be reading.

She sat on a footstool, her arm resting on the seat of a basket-chair, which supported a large open volume.

But her hand was never raised to turn a page, and it was long since her eyes had gathered the sense of the lines on which they were fixed.

This attitude had been a favourite one with her in childhood, and nowadays, in her long hours of solitude, she often fell into the old habit.