to them, blowing his words at them, rubbing his hands:

"Miss Cardinal--I am honoured--my name is Brassy, your brother's
lawyer. Very, very sad--so sudden, so sudden. The funeral is at
twelve. If there is anything I can do--"

Miss Cardinal did not regard him at all and Maggie saw that this
annoyed him. The girl watched her aunt, conscious of some strange
new excitement at her heart. She had never seen any one who in the
least resembled this remote silent woman. Maggie did not know what
it was that she had expected, but certainly it had not been this.
There was something in her Aunt's face that recalled her father and
her uncle, something in the eyes, something in the width and height
of the forehead, but this resemblance only accentuated the
astounding difference. Maggie's first impression was her ultimate
one--that her aunt had strayed out of some stained-glass window into
a wild world that did not bewilder her only because she did not
seriously regard it. Maggie found herself wondering who had fastened
her aunt's buttons and strings when she rose in the morning, how had
she ever travelled in the right train and descended at the right
station? How could she remember such trifles when her thoughts were
fixed on such distant compelling dreams? The pale oval face, the
black hair brushed back from the forehead, the thin hands with long
tapering fingers, the black dress, the slender upright body--this
figure against the cold bright winter sunlight was a picture that
remained always from that day in Maggie's soul.

Her aunt looked about her as though she had just awaked from sleep.
"Would you care to come up to your room?" asked Maggie, feeling the
embarrassment of Mr. Brassy's presence.