I should not have done so." "Please explain what you mean.
"You'll excuse me, I hope," he said, as if quite distressed to have displeased her.

"It was an unpardonable indiscretion on my part, but somebody told me, or at least I understood, that you were engaged to him." "Somebody has told you a falsehood, then," she replied, and, with a bow of rather strained dignity turned in at the gate of a house where a moment before she had not had the remotest intention of stopping.

If she had been in a boat with him, she would have jumped into the water sooner than protract the inter-view a moment after she had said that.
Mechanically she walked up the path and knocked at the door.

Until the lady of the house opened it, she did not notice where she had stopped.
Good-afternoon, Madeline.

I'm glad to see you.