Her motions were lighter and nimbler; there was no longer that slow grace of step and carriage which had expressed absolute leisure, and with it had gone, perhaps, something of dignity, which used to sit so well upon her.

She laughed from time to time in a free, careless way; formerly she seldom did more than smile.

In the old days, there was nothing about her suggestive of what are called the domestic virtues; now she seemed perfectly at home amid these simple surroundings, and, almost as soon as her visitor had sat down, she busied herself in laying the table in a quick, ready way, which came of the habit of waiting upon herself.
"You'll have a cup of tea with me ?" she said, looking at Waymark with the curiosity which seemed to show that she also found something changed in him.

"I only get home about eight o'clock, and this is the quietest and pleasantest meal in the day for me." "What do you do all day, then ?" Waymark asked, softening the bluntness of his question with a smile.
She stepped near to him, and held out her hands for him to look at; then, as he met her eyes again, laughed merrily.
"Do you guess ?" she asked.
"I believe I can.

You have gone back to the laundry again ?" "Yes." "And how long is it since you did so ?" "How long is it since we last saw each other ?" "Did you begin at once when you returned to London ?" "Yes." Waymark kept silence, whilst Ida poured out a cup of tea for him, and then took her seat at the table.
"Don't you think I'm comfortable here ?" Ida said.