After all, there was delay in the letting of the flat, and this caused her annoyance.

It was whilst the negotiations were still pending that she made her call upon Maud and Dora Milvain; Reardon did not know of her intention to visit them until it had been carried out.
She mentioned what she had done in almost a casual manner.
'I had to get it over,' she said, when Reardon exhibited surprise, 'and I don't think I made a very favourable impression.' 'You told them, I suppose, what we are going to do ?' 'No; I didn't say a word of it.' 'But why not?
It can't be kept a secret.

Milvain will have heard of it already, I should think, from your mother.' 'From mother?
But it's the rarest thing for him to go there.

Do you imagine he is a constant visitor?
I thought it better to say nothing until the thing is actually done.

Who knows what may happen ?' She was in a strange, nervous state, and Reardon regarded her uneasily.
He talked very little in these days, and passed hours in dark reverie.
His book was finished, and he awaited the publisher's decision..