Is she ready to see me ?" "Quite ready, sir." "Is she alone ?" "Yes, sir." "In the room which was Mr.Vanstone's study ?" "In that room, sir." The servant opened the door and Mr.Pendril went in.
The governess stood alone at the study window.

The morning was oppressively hot, and she threw up the lower sash to admit more air into the room, as Mr.Pendril entered it.
They bowed to each other with a formal politeness, which betrayed on either side an uneasy sense of restraint.

Mr.Pendril was one of the many men who appear superficially to the worst advantage, under the influence of strong mental agitation which it is necessary for them to control.

Miss Garth, on her side, had not forgotten the ungraciously guarded terms in which the lawyer had replied to her letter; and the natural anxiety which she had felt on the subject of the interview was not relieved by any favorable opinion of the man who sought it.

As they confronted each other in the silence of the summer's morning--both dressed in black; Miss Garth's hard features, gaunt and haggard with grief; the lawyer's cold, colorless face, void of all marked expression, suggestive of a business embarrassment and of nothing more--it would have been hard to find two persons less attractive externally to any ordinary sympathies than the two who had now met together, the one to tell, the other to hear, the secrets of the dead.
"I am sincerely sorry, Miss Garth, to intrude on you at such a time as this.