been lately put on. She went straight to the bell beside the
chimney-piece and pulled it, while in her other hand she held a
sealed and directed letter. Her companion glanced in silence at the
letter; then she looked still harder at her work. The girl hovered
near the fireplace, without speaking, and after a due, a dignified
interval the butler appeared in response to the bell. The time had
been sufficient to make the silence between the ladies seem long.
The younger one asked the butler to see that her letter should be
posted; and after he had gone out she moved vaguely about the room,
as if to give her grandmother--for such was the elder personage--a
chance to begin a colloquy of which she herself preferred not to
strike the first note. As equally with herself her companion was on
the face of it capable of holding out, the tension, though it was
already late in the evening, might have lasted long. But the old
lady after a little appeared to recognise, a trifle ungraciously, the
girl's superior resources.

"Have you written to your mother?"

"Yes, but only a few lines, to tell her I shall come and see her in
the morning."

"Is that all you've got to say?" asked the grandmother.

"I don't quite know what you want me to say."

"I want you to say that you've made up your mind."

"Yes, I've done that, granny."