"How frightfully tired you look!" she exclaimed, pausing on the
staircase as the two made their way up together.
"I am, rather," returned Miss Lermontof indifferently. "I've been
playing accompaniments all afternoon, and I've had no tea."
Diana hesitated an instant, then she said impulsively--"Oh, do come
into my room and let me make you a cup."
Olga Lermontof regarded her with a faint surprise.
"Thanks," she said in her abrupt way. "I will."
A cheerful little fire was burning in the grate, and the room presented
a very comfortable and home-like appearance, for Diana had added a
couple of easy-chairs and several Liberty cushions to its somewhat
sparse furniture. A heavy curtain, hung in front of the door to
exclude draughts, gave an additional cosy touch, and fresh flowers
adorned both chimney-piece and table.
Olga Lermontof let her long, lithe figure down into one of the
easy-chairs with a sigh of satisfaction, while Diana set the kettle on
the fire to boil, and produced from the depths of a cupboard a canister
of tea and a tin of attractive-looking biscuits.
"I often make my own tea up here," she observed. "I detest having it
in that great barrack of a dining-room downstairs. The
bread-and-butter is always so thick--like doorsteps!--and the cake is
very emphatically of the 'plain, home-made' variety."
Olga nodded.
"You look very comfortable here," she replied.
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