But Malcolm, suppressing his own agitation, tried to turn off her speech with a laugh.

She was grateful to him--good heavens! she might as well have offered a cupful of earth to a man dying of thirst! "Let him finish, Betty dear," observed Dinah faintly; "he has more to tell us." And then Malcolm produced the telegram and laid it before them.

The sisters glanced at each other with dismay, and Dinah's forehead was furrowed like an old woman's.
"What is to be done, Mr.Herrick, to save my poor boy from this iniquitous marriage ?" she inquired in a tremulous tone, and Elizabeth's eyes were asking him the same question.
"That is just the difficulty, my dear lady," he replied slowly.

"If I can only see my way clear--Mr.Rossiter advised me to speak to Miss Jacobi; he seems to think she is more amenable to reason than her brother, and probably he is right." But to Malcolm's surprise Dinah's mild eyes began to flush angrily.
"I have a worse opinion of her than I have of her brother," she said hurriedly; "she is a wicked woman--she let men make love to her when she knew her husband was alive! If she marries Cedric, I will never see her or him either;" and here Dinah trembled from head to foot.
Elizabeth, startled by the excitement of one generally so gentle, knelt down by her sister and put her arms round her.

"Dear Die," she implored, "don't make it worse for us all.