"Never mind why not, but I shall not," he had answered; and then he left the room.
"What is the matter with him ?" Colonel Osborne had asked.
"It is impossible to say what is the matter with him," Mrs.Trevelyan had replied.

After that she had at once gone up-stairs to her child, telling herself that she was doing all that the strictest propriety could require in leaving the man's society as soon as her husband was gone.

Then there was an awkward minute or two between Nora and Colonel Osborne, and he took his leave.
Stanbury at last promised that he would see Trevelyan, repeating, however, very frequently that often-used assertion, that no task is so hopeless as that of interfering between a man and his wife.
Nevertheless he promised, and undertook to look for Trevelyan at the Acrobats on that afternoon.

At last he got a moment in which to produce the letter from his sister, and was able to turn the conversation for a few minutes to his own affairs.

Dorothy's letter was read and discussed by both the ladies with much zeal.