In talking to her mother of Cope she had innocently alluded to his curious inquiry if her mother and her step-father were connected by any tie of cousinship.

Mrs.Millborne made her repeat the words.

Frances did so, and watched with inquisitive eyes their effect upon her elder.
'What is there so startling in his inquiry then ?' she asked.

'Can it have anything to do with his not writing to me ?' Her mother flinched, but did not inform her, and Frances also was now drawn within the atmosphere of suspicion.

That night when standing by chance outside the chamber of her parents she heard for the first time their voices engaged in a sharp altercation.
The apple of discord had, indeed, been dropped into the house of the Millbornes.