Yet she was resolved, meanwhile, not to suffer, as they used to say of the martyrs, then and there; not to suffer, odiously, helplessly, in public--which could be prevented but by her breaking off, with whatever inconsequence; by her treating their discussion as ended and getting away.

She suddenly wanted to go home much as she had wanted, an hour or two before, to come.

She wanted to leave well behind her both her question and the couple in whom it had, abruptly, taken such vivid form--but it was dreadful to have the appearance of disconcerted flight.
Discussion had of itself, to her sense, become danger--such light, as from open crevices, it let in; and the overt recognition of danger was worse than anything else.

The worst in fact came while she was thinking how she could retreat and still not overtly recognise.

Her face had betrayed her trouble, and with that she was lost.