She had nothing in life to look forward to now, so she told herself, except the horrible ordeal of the trial which she would be obliged to attend.
It was in the dejection now becoming habitual to her, that she sat idly one fine October morning in her little sitting-room at the consulate. She had refused to play tennis with her stepsisters, not because she had anything else to do, but because nothing was worth doing any more, and because it was less trouble to sit and gaze mournfully through the open window at the yellow leaves of the poplar in the garden, as from time to time one of them fluttered down through the still air.
How unspeakably sad it was, she thought to herself, this slow falling of the leaves, like the gradual but persistent loss of our hopes and illusions, which eventually make each human dweller in this world of change feel as bare and forlorn as the leafless winter trees.
On a branch a few feet away, a robin perched, and after looking at her critically for a few moments lifted up its voice in cheerful song.
But she took no heed of it, and continued to brood over her sorrows.
All men were faithless. With them, it was out of sight, out of mind, and she would assuredly never, never believe in one again. The best thing she could do, she decided, was to put away all thought of such things, and forget the man whom she had once been so vain as to imagine really cared for her.
And just as she told herself for the hundredth time that she had given up all hope and had resigned herself to the rôle of broken-hearted maiden, the door opened, and David was shown in.
By good luck, she was alone. Lady Byrne was not yet down, and her stepsisters were out; so there was no one to see her blushes and add to her embarrassment.
In the surprise of seeing him, all her presence of mind vanished, leaving her speechless and trembling with agitation.
For his part, David approached her with a confusion as obvious as her own.