He found Miss Le Mesurier alone and in a melancholy mood.

She was singing weariful ballads in an undertone as he entered the room, and she rose dispiritedly to welcome him.
'It's seldom one finds you alone,' he said, and his face showed his satisfaction.
'I don't know,' she replied.

'It seems to me sometimes that I am always alone, even when people are by,' and her eyelids drooped.
'You ?' Clarice's sincerity was of the artist's sort implying a sub-consciousness of an audience.

She recognised from the accent upon the _you_, that her little speech had not failed of its effect.

She continued more cheerfully: 'Aunt has gone up to Highgate to see some relations, and papa's asleep in the library.' 'You were singing.