The Strange Boarders of Palace Crescent by E. Phillips Oppenheim

Mrs. Dewar was seated at her hard wooden desk, carefully copying the disbursements of the day into an ink-stained and shabby ledger. She wore no glasses--she needed none. The back of her chair was as though it didn't exist. She sat absolutely upright and she wrote quickly and unfalteringly. Suddenly, however, she paused. She held her head in an attitude of rigid attention. There was a familiar sound in the passage outside. She felt a little shiver of fear, the fear which came to her only from one thing in life. She knew very well who this coming visitor was. She listened to the soft thud of the stick. She laid down her pen as the door opened and Flora Quayne entered. Then she rose slowly to her feet.

"Something is the matter?" she asked.