He had caused the separation, and now she must be the sole judge of her own actions.

In itself, a correspondence between her and her father's old friend was in no degree criminal or even faulty.

There was no reason, moral, social, or religious, why an old man, over fifty, who had known her all her life, should not write to her.

But yet she could not say aloud before Mrs.Stanbury, and Priscilla, and her sister, that she had received a letter from Colonel Osborne.

She felt that the colour had come to her cheek, and that she could not even walk out of the room as though the letter had been a matter of indifference to her.
And would it have been a matter of indifference had there been nobody there to see her?
Mrs.Trevelyan was certainly not in love with Colonel Osborne.