It was to her a normal, natural thing that a friend of Hugh Finlay's should bring an early welcome to his bride; and to do the normal, natural thing at keen personal cost was to sound that depth, or rise to that height of the spirit where pain sustains.

We know of Advena that she was prone to this form of exaltation.

Those who feel themselves capable may pronounce whether she would have been better at home crying in her bedroom.
She decided badly--how could she decide well ?--on what she would say to explain herself.
"I am so sorry," she told them, "that Mr Finlay is obliged to be away." It was quite wrong; it assumed too much, her knowledge and their confidence, and the propriety of discussing Mr Finlay's absence.

There was even an unconscious hint of another kind of assumption in it--a suggestion of apology for Mr Finlay.

Advena was aware of it even as it left her lips, and the perception covered her with a damning blush.