At the door of the studio, she turned again, to look long and lingeringly about the room.

Then she went out, closing and locking the door, and leaving the key on a hidden nail, as her custom was.
Going slowly, lingeringly, through the rose garden to the little gate in the hedge, she disappeared in the orange grove.
Aaron King and Conrad Lagrange, returning from a long walk, overtook Myra Willard, who was returning from town, just as the woman of the disfigured face arrived at the gate of the little house in the orange grove.

For a moment, the three stood chatting--as neighbors will,--then the two men went on to their own home.

Czar, racing ahead, announced their coming to Yee Kee and the Chinaman met them as they entered the living-room.

Telling them of Mrs.Taine's visit, he gave Aaron King the letter that she had left for him.
As the artist, conscious of the scrutinizing gaze of his friend, read the closely written pages, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment and shame.
When he had finished, he faced the novelist's eyes steadily and, without speaking, deliberately and methodically tore Mrs.Taine's letter into tiny fragments.