CHAPTER 20Florrie was a quarter of an hour late with the early morning tea next day. She brought it in with the air of one who serves a funeral feast and said,
“If it’s Mrs. Maple’s well, she never done it herself.”
Mrs. Merridew was awake but not so much awake as not to find this both startling and enigmatical. As the curtains went rattling back, she blinked at the light and said,
“Mrs. Maple’s well? What do you mean, Florrie?”
It was at this point that Miss Silver came in through the door which Florrie had left open behind her. She wore her blue dressing-gown and the black slippers with the blue pompons, and, as always, she was immaculately neat. Her slight murmur of apology was lost in Florrie’s loud repetition.
“If it’s Mrs. Maple’s well, she never done it. That’s what I’ve said,
