Alice, alone upstairs, made a dinner of gruel.
Monica was to be at Queen's Road, Chelsea, by three o'clock.

The sisters hoped she would return to Lavender Hill with her news, but that was left uncertain--by Monica herself purposely.

As an amusement, she had decided to keep her promise to Mr.Edmund Widdowson.

She was curious to see him again, and receive a new impression of his personality.

If he behaved as inoffensively as at Richmond, acquaintance with him might be continued for the variety it brought into her life.