II
She went up to her bedroom. No thought came to her, her mind was blank, but she noticed little things, put some of the silver things on her dressing-table in order, pulled her blind a little lower, moved to the fire and pushed the logs into a blaze. She sat there for a long, long time.
When the dressing-bell echoed through the rooms she was still sitting there, thinking nothing—
Her maid came to her; she told her the dress that she would wear and after a while sat staring into her mirror whilst her hair was brushed.
Lucy said, "The snow's begun again, my lady. Coming down fast——"
Then some absence of light in her mistress's eyes frightened her and she said no more.
Someone knocked on the door: a note for her ladyship. Rachel read it:
"It was all a horrible, horrible mistake. Darling Rachel, you know it was only fun—just nothing at all. Shall I come and explain? If you'd rather not see me just now say so and I shall quite understand. I've been so upset that I think I won't come down to dinner, if it isn't too much bother having just a little sent up to me. It was all such a silly mistake, as you'll see when we've explained.
Your loving
Nita."
When she came to "we" Rachel coloured a little. Then she said, "Lucy, bring me the local railway-guide. In my writing-room."
Lucy brought it to her. Then she wrote: