The gray light suffusing the drawing room through its high windows was as 
gentle as mist. As Mrs. Hackworth stood enveloped in that light, sipping beige 
tea from a cup of translucent bone china, her face let down its guard and 
betrayed some evidence of her true state of mind. Her host, Lord Finkle-McGraw, 
thought that she looked drawn and troubled, though her vivacious comportment 
during the first hour of their interview had led him to suppose otherwise.