After all, as she was going out purely for own pleasure and amusement, she might have found something nice and civil to say at parting.

And then the mere fact of being left behind, of being out of it, however limited the charms of a party, has a certain small stab to it somehow--as most persons, probing youthful experiences, can testify.
It is never quite pleasant to be the one who doesn't go!--The house, moreover, when her father was absent, always reminded Damaris of an empty shrine, a place which had lost its meaning and purpose.

To-day, though windows and doors were wide open letting in a wealth of sunshine, it appeared startlingly lifeless and void.

The maids seemed unusually quiet.

She heard no movement on the staircase or in the rooms above.
Neither gardener nor garden-boy was visible.