When she had sat down, he came with awkwardness and
timidity and bent his face to hers.
'What a hot cheek it is to-night, my little girl!' he murmured. 'I
don't like it; you've got a bit of fever hangin' about you.'
She wished to be alone; the children must not come into the room
until she had gone downstairs. When her father had left her, she
seated herself before the looking-glass, abhorrent as it was to her
to look thus in her own face, and began dressing her hair with quite
unusual attention. This beauty at least remained to her; arranged as
she had learned to do it for the stage, the dark abundance of her
tresses crowned nobly the head which once held itself with such
defiant grace. She did not change her dress, which, though it had
suffered from wear, was well-fitting and of better material than
Farringdon Road Buildings were wont to see; a sober draping which
became her tall elegance as she moved. At a quarter to nine she
arranged the veil upon her head so that she could throw her hat
aside without disturbing it; then, taking the lamp in her hand, and
the key of the Hollands' door, she went forth.
No one met her on the stairs.
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