When her brother left, Abigail slowly walked down the staircase to an empty parlour. It wasn’t unexpected since it was still so early in the morning. Moments later, her aunt came in with the butler who was carrying a tray. Abigail, who was longingly staring at the part of the room with the piano, her violin and the bookcase, knowing she would just spend the day waiting for a suitor that might never come and not being allowed to do anything else bothered her. As she noticed the trey with cakes being placed down, Abigail springed to her feet with confusion on her face. “Aunt, what is the meaning of this? Why spend so much for a display if nobody will come? All this food will go to waste.” Aunt Althea just rolled her eyes. “Good morning to you too, Abigail. Not to worry about the cakes, I know you hate to waste time waiting around, but I promise you, somebody will come. I haven’t been able to dance since my husband died and I’ve been grieving, but because of it I was able to notice people and If I’ve noticed correctly, I’m assuming at least one person is coming.” Abigail was speechless at this point, but after sitting quietly for a bit, Abigail finally spoke in so quietly it was almost a whisper. “Hope can be deceitful, so if you aren’t entierly sure in this, don’t instill it in…” She was interrupted by the banging of the door knocker. Both Althead and Abigail were surprised by this, which meant that the aunt was trying to cheer up Abigail withouth actually knowing if somebody was going to call on her. They both put slowly got up from their seat and walked out into the corridor to find out who has visited. Hiding behind the doorframe from where she could observe but not be seen, she was attempting to find out who the caller is while the door was being answered by their butler. At first she couldn’t make out who it was becuase his back was turned to the door and he looked as he was leaving, but when he turned and said ‘Happy birthday’ out of nowhere she stifled a laugh, but made too much noise stifling it to not be heard, so she knew she had to step out. Oh, but when she did step out and finally had a clear view of who was at the door, she was both delighted and surprised. She walked to the door and accepted the beautiful flowers. “Thank you, Mr. Armstrong. I’m pleasantly surprised by you coming to see me … And with such beautiful flowers.” She smelled them, but her attention was grabbed by his outfit, and as she said “Really beautiful” one might think she was talking about the flowers, but she was really looking at him, and thinking how fine clothing suit him, even though the persona* that goes with it does not … But that person doesn’t suit her either, it was just her misfortune she was born in such a family that requiers her to act in a way so different from how she wants to act. By the time she took it all in she invited him in and as they sat down, she mentioned “Mr. Armstrong, I wonder why you said ‘happy birthday’ as you came here … To my knowledge it’s nobody’s birthday in this house and if it were it’d be ackowledged somehow … I also know you’re not one to assume a fact like that withouth researching it … at least I imagine you would research something like that. Which makes me wonder … Mr. Armstrong … Is it your birthday today?”