.

.
The door-handle rattled and called her back to terror.

She had no time to clamber down from her chair.

She was caught.
But it was a woman who entered, the same that had opened the front gate; and she carried a tray with a glass of water on it and a plate of biscuits.
"The Doctor told me as 'ow you might be 'ungry," she explained.
"Thank you," said Tilda.

"I--I was lookin' at the view." For an instant she thought of appealing to this stranger's mercy.
The woman's eyes were hard, but not unkind.