Quite plainly she was not accustomed to sudden caresses.
"I'm glad we've got you, Mrs.Denys," she said, with her quiet air of childish dignity.

"You are a great help to us." She turned back to her French exercise with the words, and Avery, after a moment's thought, turned to the door.

She heard again the child's sigh of weariness as she closed it behind her.
The wails of the violin were very audible in the passage outside.

She shivered at the atrocious sounds.

From a further distance there came the screams of an indignant baby and the strident shouts of two small boys who were racing to and fro in an uncarpeted room at the top of the house.
But after that one shiver Avery Denys had no further attention to bestow upon any of these things.