, for her dress was
muddy, and she was quite rosy, and her hair was not so neat as usual.
She stood about in an undecided sort of way, and glanced several times
at Hilton on her knees before a trunk.

"Is that all the breakfast you are going to have?" she asked, becoming
aware of the glass of milk.

"What other breakfast is there to have?" snapped Susie, who was hungry,
and would have liked a great deal more.

"Well, the eggs and butter are very nice, anyway," said Anna, quite
evidently thinking of other things.

"Now what has she got into her head?" Susie asked herself, watching her
sister-in-law with misgiving. Anna's new moods were never by any chance
of a sort to give Susie pleasure. Aloud she said tartly, "I can't eat
eggs and butter by themselves. I shouldn't have had anything at all if
it hadn't been for Hilton, who went into the kitchen and made me this
herself."

"Excellent Hilton," said Anna absently. "Haven't you done packing yet,
Hilton?"

"No, m'm."

Anna sat down on the end of the sofa and began to twist the frills of
Susie's dressing-gown round her fingers.

"I haven't closed my eyes all night," said Susie, putting on her martyr
look, "nor has Hilton."

"Haven't you? Why not? I slept the sleep of the just--better, indeed,
than any just that I ever heard of."

"What, didn't that man go into your room?"

"What man? Oh, yes, Miss Leech was telling me about it. He lit the
stoves, didn't he? I never heard a sound."

"You must have slept like a log then. Any one in the least sensitive
would have been frightened out of their senses. I was, and so was
Hilton. I wouldn't spend another night in this house for anything you
could give me."

It appeared that Susie really had just cause for complaint. She had been
nervous the night before after Hilton had left her, unable to sleep, and
scared by the thought of their defencelessness--six women alone in that
wild place. She wished then with all her heart that Dellwig did live in
the house. Rats scampering about in the attic above added to her
terrors. The wind shook the windows of her room and howled
disconsolately up and down. She bore it as long as she could, which was
longer than most women would have borne it, and then knocked on the wall
dividing her room from Hilton's. But Hilton, with the bedclothes over
her head and all the candles she had been able to collect alight, would
not have stirred out of her room to save her mistress from dying; and
S