This door opened by means of a certain catch, so that to the uninitiated it always seemed locked, whereas to the initiated it would open any minute. Annie was one of the initiated. She let herself out being very careful to close the door after her, so that it would respond to that same apparently gentle touch when she wished to come back. It was most important that she should make all things right with regard to the door, as by that means she saved at least half-an-hour of her precious--her most precious time. Oh, if only Miss Phillips could see her now! Where was the pallid, suffering girl? Surely she was not represented by this red-faced, panting, strong-looking creature who was careering along the dusty roads _en route_ for Hendon. By-and-by she reached the suburbs, turned down a side street, and knocked loudly at a little green door. The door was opened by a woman who was evidently at once the owner of the house and her own servant. "How do you do, Miss Brooke?" she said, looking at Annie in some astonishment. "I am very sorry indeed, miss, but Susie has been having her bad days, and your dresses are not ready for you. She'll send them down this evening, if possible; but when her back aches at its worst she cannot manage the machine, miss; so I do hope, Miss Brooke, that you won't be hard on her." "Not at all; I am very sorry for her," said Annie in her gentle voice. "May I go in and talk to her for a few minutes, Mrs Martin?" "To be sure, miss; you will find her upstairs in the sewing-room." Annie seemed to know her way quite well about this house. She ran up some very steep stairs and entered a low room which had at the end a sloping roof. There was a bed tucked as it were out of sight under the eaves; but right in the fall blaze of the summer sun, and where the room was most stiflingly hot, sat a very pallid girl with a large, over hanging brow, pale, tired-looking eyes, and a sensitive mouth. The girl was bending over a large sewing-machine, the work of which she was guiding with her hand, while her feet worked the treadles. The moment she saw Annie she looked at her with a great rush of colour spreading over her face. "Why, Miss Brooke!" she said. "Ah," said Annie, "you are behaving very badly indeed to me, Susie. I have just seen your mother, and she says that your back is so bad you can't do your machining, and in consequence my work--_mine_, Susan--is not finished. Oh Susan! it is somebody else's dress you are making now, and you are quite well enough to do your machining. I am surprised."