So the morning hummed along; luncheon-time came, the silver was all cleaned, the stockings changed, and there was roast chicken.Thomas, with his wicked eyes, came slowly, majestically upon the scene--but even he was not sinister to-day, being interested in his own greed rather than other persons' sins.
All this time Maggie refused to think.Martin would come, then she would see.
Martin...Martin...Martin...She went up into her bedroom and whispered the name over and over to herself whilst she tried to mend her stocking.She flung the stocking down and gazed out of the window on to a world that was all golden cloud and racing watery blue.The roofs swam like floating carpets in the sun, detached from the brick and mortar beneath them, carried by the racing clouds.It was only at that sudden gaze that she realised that she was a prisoner.All her alarm came back to her.
"Why can't I go out? I'll put on my hat and just walk out.No one can stop me.No one..."But she knew that she could not.Something more must happen first.
She turned from the window with a little shudder, finished very clumsily her stocking, and as the cuckoo clock struck halfpast three went down to the drawing-room.
There to her surprise, she found Caroline Smith.The events of the last few days had, a little, dimmed Caroline from her memory.She had not seen Caroline for a fortnight.She did not know that she especially wanted to see Caroline now.However, it was very certain that Caroline wanted to see her.The young woman was dressed in rose-coloured silk that stood out from her slim body almost like a crinoline, and she had a straw funnel-shaped hat with roses perched on the side of her lovely head.She kissed Maggie many times, and then sitting down with her little sharp black shoes poked out in front of her, she ran on: