It was Mrs. Wilson who awakened her, and Florence started up in affright to find the sun high in the heavens, and the usual hour for breakfast long over.
“I’ve been in before,” Mrs. Wilson explained, “for it’s such an unusual thing for you to sleep late that I felt sure you were not well. And when I saw how pale you looked, I could not bear to wake you till there was some fresh tea made. Do sit up and drink it, my dear! Not undressed, too! How very ill you must have felt! Why did you not call me?”
In silence, Florence swallowed the contents of the cup so kindly held to her lips, and then got rid of Mrs. Wilson with the assurance that she felt much better, and only wanted a bath to be quite herself again.
When alone, she tried to decide upon the best course of action she could adopt. Not all Mr. Aylwinne’s generosity could reconcile her to remaining beneath his roof while unable to regard him with indifference. At the same time, she felt that she owed it to him to receive his kindness with gratitude, and neither withdraw herself rudely nor hastily, lest he suspect the true reason.
“I will write to my Aunt Margaret,” she decided. “She is the only relative I possess, and I have a just claim upon her protection. With all her faults she is affectionate, and will not refuse me a home.”
She opened her desk directly, and had just commenced her epistle, when Mrs. Wilson tapped at the door.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, my dear, but here is a note Mr. Aylwinne asked me to give you. He has been waiting for more than an hour to see you, but could not stay longer.”
“Has he left Orwell Court again?” asked Florence, with a dismayed conviction that if it were so he went to avoid her.
“Yes, my dear. Business in the north has called him away. Very unfortunate, isn’t it, just as he was so comfortable with us? However, I’ll not keep you from reading your note.”
But it laid before her unopened long after Mrs. Wilson quitted the room. With eyes fixed on the bold superscription, she sat, as if unable to nerve herself to learn what lay beneath. At last she seized and tore it open.