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All these days Dolly had been alone with her children. She did

not want to talk of her sorrow, but with that sorrow in her heart

she could not talk of outside matters. She knew that in one way

or another she would tell Anna everything, and she was

alternately glad at the thought of speaking freely, and angry at

the necessity of speaking of her humiliation with her, his

sister, and of hearing her ready-made phrases of good advice and

comfort. She had been on the lookout for her, glancing at her

watch every minute, and, as so often happens, let slip just that

minute when her visitor arrived, so that she did not hear the

bell.

Catching a sound of skirts and light steps at the door, she

looked round, and her care-worn face unconsciously expressed not

gladness, but wonder. She got up and embraced her sister-in-law.

"What, here already!" she said as she kissed her.

"Dolly, how glad I am to see you!"