"Isn't it perfectly lovely, Margaret dear ?" she said.
"It is most interesting, my dear child," replied Margaret.
Annie went on eagerly with the details of her triumph, the book sales which increased every week, the revises, the letters from her publishers, and Margaret listened smiling in spite of her torture, but she never said more than "How interesting." At last Annie went home and could not help feeling disappointed, although she could not fathom the significance of Margaret's reception of her astonishing news.

Annie only worried because she feared lest her happiness had not cheered her friend as much as she had anticipated.
"Poor Margaret, she must feel so very bad that nothing can reconcile her to such a betrayal of her hospitality," she reflected as she flitted across the street.

There was nobody in evidence at her house at window or on the wide verandah.

Annie looked at her watch tucked in her girdle, hung around her neck by a thin gold chain which had belonged to her mother.

It yet wanted a full hour of supper time.