The Queen of Hearts

Owen and I looked at one another in panic-stricken silence. It was coming to us -- and what did it contain? Do pianos travel in chaises? Are boxes of novels conveyed to their destination by a postilion? We expected the piano and expected the novels, but nothing else -- unquestionably nothing else. Powers of caprice, confusion, and dismay! It was Jessie Yelverton herself -- arriving, without a word of warning, exactly ten days before her time.