But she had seen the same thing before and would not let herself look at people or hear anything she could shut her ears against.

Some new thing had happened, perhaps the Germans had taken some important town and wreaked their vengeance on the inhabitants, perhaps some new alarming move had been made and disaster stared the Allies in the face.

She staggered through the crowds in the station and did not really know how she reached Eaton Square.
Half an hour later she was sitting at her desk quiet and neat in her house dress.

She had told the Duchess all she could tell her of her visit to old Mrs.Bennett.
"We both cried a good deal," she explained when she saw her employer look at her stained eyes.

"She keeps remembering what they were like when they were babies--how rosy and fat they were and how they learned to walk and tumbled about on her little kitchen floor.