TO LONDON I In the middle of the night Hilda woke up, and within a few seconds she convinced herself that her attitude to Miss Gailey's telegram had been simply monstrous.

She saw it, in the darkness, as an enormity.

She ought to have responded to the telegram at once; she ought to have gone to London by the afternoon train.

What had there been to prevent her from knocking at the door of the inner room, and saying to Mr.Cannon, in the presence of no matter whom: "I am very sorry, Mr.Cannon, but I've just had a telegram that mother is ill in London, and I must leave by the next train"?
There had been nothing to prevent her! At latest she should have caught the evening train.

Business was of no account in such a crisis.