Where he stood he could see her as she crossed the hall, coming unconsciously to meet him.

All the brightness and airy grace seemed to have been drawn quite out of her.

The alert, slender figure drooped as if it carried some palpable weight, and moved with a step slow and unsteady as that of sickness or age.

Her face was pathetic in its sad pallor, and blue, sorrowful circles were drawn under the deep eyes, heavy and dim with the shedding of unnumbered tears.

It almost broke his heart to look at her.