She looked so pretty, so fragile, so young, in her widow's mourning.
She went through into the dining-room.

There was a writing-table in the window, and there she sat down and put her head in her hands; she felt unutterably forlorn, frightened too--she hardly knew of what.

It had given her such a horrible shock to learn that Piper was married....
Taking up a pen, she held it for a while poised in the air, staring out of the window at the attractive though rather neglected old garden, in which only this morning she had spent more than an hour with Jack Tosswill.
Then, at last, she dipped her pen in the ink, and after making two rough drafts, she decided on the following form of answer to Mrs.Piper, telling herself that it might be read as addressed to either husband or wife:-- Mrs.Crofton is very sorry to hear that Piper has lost his good situation.

She will try and hear of something that will suit him.

Mrs.
Crofton cannot see Mrs.Piper for the present, as she is leaving home to start on a round of visits, but she will keep in touch with Mr.and Mrs.Piper and hopes to hear of something that may suit Piper very soon.
She began by writing "Mr.Piper," on one of her pretty black-edged mauve envelopes; then she altered the "Mr." to "Mrs." After all it was Piper's wife who had written to her, and she suddenly remembered with a slight feeling of apprehension, that Mrs.Piper, for some reason best known to herself, had not told Piper that she was writing.