'Perhaps her ladyship is going to take tea in her own room,' she said,
afraid to be officious.
Attendance upon her grandmother at afternoon tea had been one of
Lesbia's particular duties; but Mary felt that she was an unwelcome
substitute for Lesbia. She wanted to get a little nearer her
grandmother's heart if she could; but she knew that her attentions were
endured rather than liked.
She went into the hall, where the footman on duty was staring at the
light snowflakes dancing past the window, perhaps wishing he were a
snowflake himself, and enjoying himself in that white whirligig.
'Is her ladyship having tea in the morning-room?' asked Mary.
The footman gave a little start, as if awakened out of a kind of trance.
The sheer vacuity of his mind might naturally slide into mesmeric sleep.
He told Lady Mary that her ladyship had not left the library, and Mary
went in timidly, wondering why her grandmother had not joined them in
the drawing-room when the stranger was gone.
The sky was dark outside the wide windows, white hills and valleys
shrouded in the shades of night.
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