Come and have some tea at once.' And she dragged her into the drawing-room.

Catherine submitted with all her usual outward calm, faintly smiling at her sister's onslaught.

But she would not let Agnes put her down on the sofa.

She stood with her hand on the back of a chair.
'The weather is very close and exhausting,' she said, gently lifting her hand to her hat.

But the hand dropped, and she sank heavily into the chair.
'Cathie, you are faint,' cried Agnes, running to her.
Catherine waved her away, and, with an effort of which none but she would have been capable, mastered the physical weakness.
'I have been a long way, dear,' she said, as though in apology, 'and there is no air.