It was a bright January day.

Lunch was just over at Mannering, and the luncheon-party had dispersed--attracted to the garden and the park by the lure of the sunshine after dark days of storm and wind.
Mrs.Gaddesden alone was left sitting by the fire in the hall.

There was a cold wind, and she did not feel equal to facing it.

She was one of those women, rare in these days, who, though still young, prefer to be prematurely old; in whom their great-grandmothers, and the 'elegant' lackadaisical ways of a generation that knew nothing of exercise, thick boots and short skirts, seem to become once more incarnate.

Though Mannering was not ill-warmed, Alice moved about it in winter wrapped in a picturesque coat of black velvet trimmed with chinchilla, her head wreathed in white lace.