Lady Henrietta Stanhope

The cloth over the mirror looked more worn than last week. I always sit in the same chair. It's the only one that never creaks.

• Nell BriggsI see to that chair myself every morning, milady. Wouldn't do for it to creak.
  Lady Henrietta StanhopeThank you. Three years, and I never knew.
• Cyril AshbyMadame, shall I have the sums you've paid these three years tallied and sent to you?
  Lady Henrietta StanhopeThat won't be necessary. I have never once haggled the price.

The child thought paper too dear to waste, and wrote crosswise over his own lines to save it. I still read nothing but that crossed hand.

• Madame Orphee DuboisMadame, lay that letter before me and I can give you a night better than any Thursday.
  Lady Henrietta StanhopeThis letter does not leave this room, let alone your parlour.
• Doctor Ambrose KilburnMadame, that is the ordinary course of grief. Let me adjust your draught.
  Lady Henrietta StanhopeDoctor, it isn't sleep I'm losing. It's a voice I can no longer hear.