If only the ring meant a summons from the outer world--a token that she was still remembered and wanted! After some delay a parlour-maid presented herself with the announcement that there was a person outside who was asking to see Miss Bart; and on Lily's pressing for a more specific description, she added: "It's Mrs.Haffen, Miss; she won't say what she wants." Lily, to whom the name conveyed nothing, opened the door upon a woman in a battered bonnet, who stood firmly planted under the hall-light.

The glare of the unshaded gas shone familiarly on her pock-marked face and the reddish baldness visible through thin strands of straw-coloured hair.
Lily looked at the char-woman in surprise.
"Do you wish to see me ?" she asked.
"I should like to say a word to you, Miss." The tone was neither aggressive nor conciliatory: it revealed nothing of the speaker's errand.
Nevertheless, some precautionary instinct warned Lily to withdraw beyond ear-shot of the hovering parlour-maid.
She signed to Mrs.Haffen to follow her into the drawing-room, and closed the door when they had entered.
"What is it that you wish ?" she enquired.
The char-woman, after the manner of her kind, stood with her arms folded in her shawl.

Unwinding the latter, she produced a small parcel wrapped in dirty newspaper.
"I have something here that you might like to see, Miss Bart." She spoke the name with an unpleasant emphasis, as though her knowing it made a part of her reason for being there.

To Lily the intonation sounded like a threat.
"You have found something belonging to me ?" she asked, extending her hand.
Mrs.Haffen drew back.

"Well, if it comes to that, I guess it's mine as much as anybody's," she returned.
Lily looked at her perplexedly.