She opened the window and listened--"Someone--several people--will come down that garden path in a minute--I know they will." But the air was very cold and she closed the window; even as she did so a clock struck four. She got up and went to Rachel. III The Chinese room was so called because its walls were covered with a stiff golden Chinese paper. It had wide windows looking on to the garden; Rachel used it a great deal. Lizzie fixed upon her mind, very deliberately, all the details of her surroundings. Rachel was dressed in black with red round her throat and her waist, and this brilliant colour made her face seem white and there were deep, heavy black marks under her eyes. She looked up when Lizzie came in, seemed, with a violent effort, to compel control. They sat there for some time and discussed the dance; the dusk filled the room, then tea was brought. There was a light in their corner; slowly the rest of the room grew dark. They finished tea, it was taken away, and Lizzie, sitting quite close to Rachel, on a little sofa that had a window just behind it, was aware that again, in spite of herself, her ears were straining for some sound. The house and all the world were profoundly still. When the servant had at last left them alone, Rachel said--"Miss Rand, you mustn't go away to-morrow--Aunt Adela can manage for another week. After all, she did promise that you should stay for me over the ball." "Why did you ask me here, Lady Rachel?" Lizzie said. Her speech was a direct challenge and, instantly, when she had spoken she knew that they had entered upon those personal relations that they had, during all these weeks, feared. "I asked you because I wanted you for a friend--I've no friend--no woman friend--whom I can trust. I knew that I could trust you--I hoped that you could help me----" "I've been here for some time now and you have told me nothing." "No--because you have held me off, have shown me so plainly that you disliked and distrusted me. You didn't always dislike me--what have I done?" "That's only my way. As I told you this morning, Lady Seddon, I'm not an emotional person. But I feel more than I show. I would like to help you, if you will let me." Rachel leaned forward and caught first Lizzie's arm, then her hand. Then she spoke, her voice quivering as though she were forcing upon herself the most intense control. "Oh! you're so strange, so odd I don't know what you feel, whether you care, but these last months have been so hard for me that even though you hate me, despise me, it doesn't matter--nothing matters if only I can get away from myself, you're so different--so dry, so hard, but you are, you are!--just as hard----" she stopped--Lizzie drew her hand away. "Please--don't tell me things if you feel about me like that. It hasn't been my fault, has it, that we don't get on? _I_ didn't ask to come here, to know you--let me go--let me go back. Don't bother about me--leave me alone," she at last brought out.