Ah! There's Master Scott! And would ye like him to come in and have a cup with ye ?" Three soft knocks had sounded on the door.

The woman in the bed raised herself, and her hair fell in glory around her, hair that at twenty-five had been raven-black, hair that at thirty-two was white as the snow outside the window.
"Is that you, Stumpy dear?
Come in! Come in!" she called.
Her voice was hollow and deep.

She turned her face to the door--a beautiful, wasted face with hungry eyes that watched and waited perpetually.
The door opened very quietly and unobtrusively, and a small, insignificant man came in.

He was about the size of the average schoolboy of fifteen, and he walked with a slight limp, one leg being a trifle shorter than the other.

Notwithstanding this defect, his general appearance was one of extreme neatness, from his colourless but carefully trained moustache and small trim beard to his well-shod feet.