None the less it paused at this house, and she was startled to perceive a telegraph messenger on the point of knocking.

At once she hastened to the front door.
"Mrs.Quarrier ?" inquired the boy, holding out his missive.
Lilian drew back with it into the passage.

But there was not light enough to read by; she had to enter the sitting-room and hold the sheet of paper close to the kettle-lamp.
"Very sorry that I cannot get home before ten.

Unexpected business." She read it carefully, then turned with a sigh and dismissed the messenger.
In a quarter of an hour she had made tea, and sat down to take a cup.
The cat, refreshed after slumber, jumped on to her lap and lay there pawing playfully at the trimming of her sleeves.

Lilian at first rewarded this friendliness only with absent stroking, but when she had drunk her tea and eaten a slice of bread and butter the melancholy mood dispersed; pussy's sportiveness was then abundantly indulged, and for awhile Lilian seemed no less merry than her companion.
The game was interrupted by another knock at the house-door; this time it was but the delivery of the evening paper.