noon
At breakfast she could not conceal her want of appetite , and was glad when Emily went with her to their own room , where , after relating her escape from accident , and Mr. Phillips ' agency in that escape , she was permitted by her apparently satisfied hearer to sit down and read to her in a book lent them by that gentleman , to whom , however , no opportunity had yet occurred of introducing Emily . The whole morning passed away , and nothing was heard from Willie . Every time a servant passed , Gertrude was on the tiptoe of expectation ; and when she heard a tap at the door she trembled so that she could hardly lift the latch . But there was no summons to the parlour , and by noon the excitement had brought a deep flush into her face , and she had a severe headache . Conscious , however , of the wrong construction put upon her conduct if she absented herself from the dinner-table , she made the effort to dress with as much care as usual ; and , as she passed up the hall to her seat , it was not strange that , though suffering herself , the rich glow that mantled her cheeks , and the brilliancy which excitement had given to her dark eyes , attracted the notice of others besides Mr. Phillips . When Gertrude went to her room after dinner , which she did as soon as she had seen Emily comfortably established in the drawing-room in conversation with Madam Gryseworth , she found there a beautiful bouquet of the choicest flowers , which the chamber-maid said she had been commissioned to deliver to herself . She rightly imagined the source from whence they came , divined the motives of kindness which had prompted the donor of so acceptable a gift , and felt that , if she must accept pity from any quarter , Mr. Phillips was one from whom she could more easily bear to receive it than from any other .