The tea was soon made and so was the toast. She took down Martin’s breakfast tray and set it carefully for herself, even putting a clean white cloth on it, but when everything was arranged, instead of carrying the tray up to the fireside, she pulled a chair up to the kitchen table and sat down and poured herself a cup of tea. She was too hungry and too thirsty. She could stand no further delay; she must have something to eat at once. She thought about the shadow that had been waiting for her up there in the children’s room all these years and that had remained hidden from her until tonight. She had never seen it in any other room in the house and she did not think it was to be seen in any other room of the house.

She looked around her, but the shadow was not in the kitchen. Bennie was sitting on the tiled floor at her feet, and she broke off a piece of toast and gave it to him. Rupert and Minnie had suddenly appeared and were sitting thoughtfully beside their milk saucer near the door that led out into the garden. She got up and poured milk for the cats, and then she went back to the table and poured herself another cup of tea. She decided to make more toast, and to eat some of the chicken that was left over from the special dinner she had made for the children yesterday. She felt all different — not sad, not tired anymore. She felt very hopeful all of a sudden. It was wonderful how seeing that shadow had raised her spirits. It was wonderful knowing that shadow was upstairs and that it would never go away. It was almost like having somebody in the house.

The Sofa

__________

THE NEW SOFA was to be delivered today, Tuesday, but “sometime during the day”; no set time had been given by the people in the shop. Mrs. Bagot had been so pleased when they told her she would have the sofa for sure on Tuesday that she hadn’t thought to ask if she should expect it in the morning or in the afternoon. She should have asked them to set a definite time, or at least to say whether the sofa would arrive in the early part of the day or later. As it was, she had spent the whole morning in waiting and it was now two o’clock in the afternoon. She had wasted the better part of the day wandering about the house and not doing much of anything, and yet you could hardly say wasted when she had really been waiting, and waiting for something worthwhile. The downstairs part of the house was going to be completely furnished at last. The sofa was going to make all the difference.