“No!” she answered, with a trace of irritability. “I’m just tired.”
“But don’t you think you ought to eat something, you know? Or a cup of tea?”
“No!” she cried, still more impatiently. “I can’t. I want to rest.”
“Can you open the door for half a moment?” he asked. “I’ve some roses here that my sister sent to you. She wanted me to say—”
The door opened with startling suddenness. Lexy appeared, and took the roses out of his hand.
“Thank you! Good night!” she said, and was gone again before he quite realized what was happening.
Then he heard the key turn in the lock, and, bewildered and very uneasy, he went away.
Lexy flung the roses down on the table, not even troubling to put them into water.
“Anything to get rid of him!” she said to herself. “I want to be let alone!”
She lay down on the bed again, pulling a blanket over herself. Downstairs she could hear Mrs. Royce moving about in the kitchen, and Captain Grey’s singularly agreeable voice talking to the landlady. It seemed to her that they were in a different world, and that she was shut outside, in a black and terrible solitude.