By and by she came back to a table where she had thrown the other letters, and picking them up studied the outside of the envelopes with an abstracted air, as if her mind were not intent upon her occupation. Then she tore open a second letter, reading it carelessly at first and afterwards with closer attention.
She began walking a second time, with a change of manner and as if she were thinking deeply. Her straight brows became a fairly level line, her blue eyes perceptibly darkened, her lips closed more firmly than usual.
At noon there was a knock at her door and Juliet Temple entered.
“Please say that I am not coming in to lunch, Juliet, and bring me something to eat here. If possible, as I expect to be busy, I’d rather not be disturbed this afternoon.”
Mrs. Burton had but scant hope of Miss Patricia’s observing her wish and yet the entire afternoon passed and no one came near her.
Nevertheless, she did not appear to be seriously occupied during the earlier part of the afternoon. Instead she sat for an hour before her fire with her hands tightly clasped. Afterwards, drawing her writing table toward her, she wrote a short note which she placed in an envelope and addressed to her husband. The second note was longer and oddly enough addressed to Miss Patricia Lord, who at present moment was not many yards away. But this letter Mrs. Burton placed inside her bureau drawer, and then fell to packing a small suitcase which she afterwards hid away in a closet.
She went in to supper and sat talking an hour or more in the living-room with the Camp Fire girls, but asked to be excused early in the evening and again retired to her own bed-room. She was undressing to put on a tea-gown when the door opened and in walked Miss Patricia looking uncommonly severe.
“I came in to inquire if you are ill, Polly, or if there is any particular reason why you have avoided our society all day? Really you are one of the most unreasonable people in the world!”
An instant Mrs. Burton hesitated, her expression a little wistful, with almost a childish appeal. Then conscious of Miss Patricia’s unrelenting air, and knowing her inflexible will, she shook her head.
“No, Aunt Patricia, I am not in the least ill, in fact I rarely have felt better. But I have had some business I wished to attend to this afternoon and found it more convenient to be alone.”