Emmeline did not care to have it reported that selfish distress made her indifferent to the sufferings of a friend staying in her house.

But she could not pass Cobb without addressing him severely.
'So _you_ are the cause of this!' 'I am, Mrs.Mumford, and I can only say that I'll do my best to make good the damage to your house.' 'Make good I fancy you have strange ideas of the value of the property destroyed.' Insolence was no characteristic of Mrs.Mumford.But calamity had put her beside herself; she spoke, not in her own person, but as a woman whose carpets, curtains and bric-a-brac have ignominiously perished.
'I'll make it good,' Cobb repeated humbly, 'however long it takes me.

And don't be angry with that poor girl, Mrs.Mumford.It wasn't her fault, not in any way.

She didn't know I was coming; she hadn't asked me to come.

I'm entirely to blame.' 'You mean to say you knocked over the table by accident ?' 'I did indeed.