Page:Herbert Jenkins - Patricia Brent Spinster.djvu/250

 sometimes you get a little tired. Fretting!" There was indignation in her voice. "What have you got to fret about?"

With the passage of each day, however, she grew more listless and weary. She came to dread meal-times, with their irritating chatter and uninspiring array of faces that she had come almost to dislike. She was conscious of whisperings and significant looks among her fellow-boarders. She resented even Gustave's cow-like gaze of sympathetic anxiety as she declined the food he offered her.

Lady Tanagra and Mr. Triggs never asked her out. Everybody seemed suddenly to have deserted her. Sometimes she would catch a glimpse of them in the Park on Sunday morning. Once she saw Bowen; but he did not see her. "The daily round and common task" took on a new and sinister meaning for her. Sometimes her thoughts would travel on a few years into the future. What did it hold for her? Instinctively she shuddered at the loneliness of it all.

One afternoon on her return to Galvin House, Gustave opened the door. He had evidently been on the watch. His kindly face was beaming with goodwill.

"Oh, mees!" he cried. "Mees Brent is here." "Aunt Adelaide!" cried Patricia, her heart sinking. Then seeing the comical look of indecision upon Gustave's face caused by her despairing exclamation she laughed.