But along with Ellen's conviction of the lady's youth had come a conviction of her power, and she yielded to her unquestioningly.

Whenever she came near her she gazed with dilating eyes upon the blazing circle of diamonds at her throat.
When she was bidden, she followed the lady into the dining-room, where the glitter of glass and silver and the soft gleam of precious china made her think for a little while that she must be in a store.
She had never seen anything like this except in a store, when she had been with her mother to buy a lamp-chimney.

So she decided this to be a store, but she said nothing.

She did not speak at all, but she ate her biscuits, and slice of breast of chicken, and sponge-cake, and drank her milk.
She had her milk in a little silver cup which seemed as if it might have belonged to another child; she also sat in a small high-chair, which made it seem as if another child had lived or visited in the house.

Ellen became singularly possessed with this sense of the presence of a child, and when the door opened she would look around for her to enter, but it was always an old black woman with a face of imperturbable bronze, which caused her to huddle closer into her chair when she drew near.
There were not many colored people in the city, and Ellen had never seen any except at Long Beach, where she had sometimes gone to have a shore dinner with her mother and Aunt Eva.