I bite my moustache and tap foot on the floor, out of his hearing; make believe I'm patient.

Now I 'll fetch Nesta.' Mrs.Blathenoy came down with an arm on Nesta's shoulder.

She held a telegram, and said to Nataly-- 'What can this mean?
It's from my husband; he puts "Jacob": my husband's Christian name:--so like my husband, where there's no concealment! There--he says: "Down to-night else pack ready start to-morrow." Can it signify, affairs are bad with my husband in the city ?' It had that signification to Nataly's understanding.

At the same time, the pretty little woman's absurd lisping repetition of 'my husband' did not seem without design to inflict the wound it caused.
In reality, it was not malicious; it came of the bewitchment of a silly tongue by her knowledge of the secret to be controlled: and after contrasting her fortunes with Nataly's, on her way downstairs, she had comforted herself by saying, that at least she had a husband.

She was not aware that she dealt a hurt until she had found a small consolation in the indulgence: for Captain Dartrey Fenellan admired this commanding figure of a woman, who could not legally say that which the woman he admired less, if at all, legally could say.
'I must leave you to interpret,' Nataly remarked.
Mrs.Blathenoy resented her unbefitting queenly style.