UGHTRED Bettina stood alone in her bedroom a couple of hours later.

Lady Anstruthers had taken her to it, preparing her for its limitations by explaining that she would find it quite different from her room in New York.

She had been pathetically nervous and flushed about it, and Bettina had also been aware that the apartment itself had been hastily, and with much moving of objects from one chamber to another, made ready for her.
The room was large and square and low.

It was panelled in small squares of white wood.

The panels were old enough to be cracked here and there, and the paint was stained and yellow with time, where it was not knocked or worn off.