She closed her eyes and her eyelids fluttered as she fingered the precious thing.

For a moment we thought she was going to faint.

There was breathless silence.

Even Susan, who had been left out in the cold, let the black kitten leap from her knee, and aware that something out of the ordinary was happening, fixed her wondering eyes on Doria.

Her mother and I wondered even more than Susan, for we had more reason.