If anything unpleasant happened, she had only to walk away.

The slight, very slight, tremor of anticipation was reasonably to be prized by a shop-girl at Messrs.

Scotcher's.
Drawing near to Queen's Road--the wrapped-up Keble in her hand--she began to wonder whether Miss Nunn would have any serious proposal to offer.

Virginia's report and ecstatic forecasts were, she knew, not completely trustworthy; though more than ten years her sister's junior, Monica saw the world with eyes much less disposed to magnify and colour ordinary facts.
Miss Barfoot was still from home.

Rhoda Nunn received the visitor in a pleasant, old-fashioned drawing-room, where there was nothing costly, nothing luxurious; yet to Monica it appeared richly furnished.