A brightness flashed into his eyes and sank out of them again.
"Come in and sit down," she said, "I have seen very little of you lately, and you seem tired.

Half-an-hour's casual chatter will do you no harm, although it may appear to you a terrible waste of time." Alton came in and dropped into a chair which creaked beneath him.

His face was somewhat weary, and the girl noticed the stiffness of his movements.

He also looked about him with a curious expression which seemed to suggest reverence in his eyes.
"No," he said gravely, "it wouldn't be a waste of time." Alice Deringham smiled a little, and moved one foot a trifle nearer the stove.

It was little, and delicately moulded, and lost nothing from being encased in a very open bronze slipper.