of all that might be taking place in the great building itself reach
their ears: they sat aloof, shut off, as it were, from the living world.
And this feeling soon grew downright oppressive: it must be like this to
be dead, thought Laura to herself; and inconsequently remembered a
quarter of an hour she had once spent in a dentist's ante-room: there as
here the same soundless vacancy, the same anguished expectancy. Now, as
then, her heart began to thump so furiously that she was afraid the
others would hear it. But they, too, were subdued; though Cousin Grace
tittered continually you heard only a gentle wheezing, and even
Godmother expressed the hope that they would not be kept waiting long,
under her breath. But minute after minute went by; there they sat and
nothing happened. It began to seem as if they might sit on for ever.

All of a sudden, from out the spacious halls of which they had
caught a glimpse on arriving, brisk steps began to come towards them
over the oilcloth--at first as a mere tapping in the distance, then
rapidly gaining in weight and decision. Laura's palpitations reached
their extreme limit--another second and they might have burst her
chest. Cousin Grace ceased to giggle; the door opened with a peculiar
flourish; and all three rose to their feet.

The person who entered was a very stately lady; she wore a cap with
black ribbons. With the door-handle still in her hand she made a slight
obeisance, in which her whole body joined, afterwards to become more
erect than before. Having introduced herself to Godmother as Mrs.
Gurley, the Lady Superintendent of the institution, she drew up a chair,
let herself down upon it, and began to converse with an air of ineffable
condescension.

While she talked Laura examined her, with a child's thirst for detail.