"Have you considered what I must feel in having such words addressed to me by my husband?
If I am fit to be told that I must promise not to see any man living, I cannot be fit to be any man's wife." Then she burst out into an hysterical fit of tears, and in this condition she got out of the carriage, entered her house, and hurried up to her own room.
"Indeed, she has not been to blame," said Nora to Trevelyan on the staircase.
"Why has there been a secret kept from me between her and this man; and that too, after I had cautioned her against being intimate with him?
I am sorry that she should suffer; but it is better that she should suffer a little now, than that we should both suffer much by-and-by." Nora endeavoured to explain to him the truth about the committee, and Colonel Osborne's promised influence, and the reason why there was to be a secret.

But she was too much in a hurry to get to her sister to make the matter plain, and he was too much angered to listen to her.
He shook his head when she spoke of Colonel Osborne's dislike to have his name mentioned in connection with the matter.

"All the world knows it," he said with scornful laughter.
It was in vain that Nora endeavoured to explain to him that though all the world might know it, Emily herself had only heard of the proposition as a thing quite unsettled, as to which nothing at present should be spoken openly.

It was in vain to endeavour to make peace on that night.

Nora hurried up to her sister, and found that the hysterical tears had again given place to anger.