It made her so helpless that, as the time passed without her alighting, the Colonel came back and fairly drew her forth; after which, on the pavement, under the street-lamp, their very silence might have been the mark of something grave--their silence eked out for her by his giving her his arm and their then crawling up their steps quite mildly and unitedly together, like some old Darby and Joan who have had a disappointment.

It almost resembled a return from a funeral--unless indeed it resembled more the hushed approach to a house of mourning.

What indeed had she come home for but to bury, as decently as possible, her mistake?
XVII It appeared thus that they might enjoy together extraordinary freedom, the two friends, from the moment they should understand their position aright.

With the Prince himself, from an early stage, not unnaturally, Charlotte had made a great point of their so understanding it; she had found frequent occasion to describe to him this necessity, and, her resignation tempered, or her intelligence at least quickened, by irrepressible irony, she applied at different times different names to the propriety of their case.

The wonderful thing was that her sense of propriety had been, from the first, especially alive about it.