Aminta shook herself to think tolerantly of him when he, after listening to the suggestion, put interrogatively, that we should profit by Hannibal's example and train elephants to serve as a special army corps for the perfect security of our priceless Indian Empire, instanced the danger likely to result from their panic fear of cannon, and forbore to consult Lord Ormont's eye.
Mrs.Pagnell knew that she had put her foot into it; but women advised of being fools in what they say, are generally sustained by their sense of the excellent motive which impelled them.

Even to the Countess of Ormont, she could have replied, "We might have given them a higher idea of us"-- if, that meant, the Countess of Ormont had entered the field beside her, to the exclusion of a shrinking Aminta.

She hinted as much subsequently, and Aminta's consciousness of the troth was touched.
The young schoolmaster's company sat on her spirits, deadened her vocabulary.

Her aunt spoke of passing the library door and hearing the two gentlemen loudly laughing.

It seemed subserviency on the fallen young hero's part.