For those few minutes before the fire Isobel used her disguise as a test.

She came to me, before you joined us, and whispered to me that Nome was a scoundrel, and that she would punish him before the evening was over.

In the short space of that evening she knew that she had met one of the most despicable of blackguards in Nome, and one of the noblest of men in you.

And not until she saw on you the effect of what she was doing did everything dawn fully upon her.
You know what happened.

She left the table suddenly, overcome by shame and terror.