There had been a time in which he had feared that the two cousins would become man and wife.
At this moment he uttered a malediction against the member for Bobsborough, which might perhaps have been spared had the member been now willing to take the lady off his hands.

Then the door was opened, and the messenger told him that Mrs.Hittaway was in the waiting-room.

Mrs.Hittaway was, of course, at once made welcome to the Under-Secretary's own apartment.
Mrs.Hittaway was a strong-minded woman,--the strongest-minded probably of the Fawn family,--but she had now come upon a task which taxed all her strength to the utmost.

She had told her mother that she would tell "Frederic" what she thought about his proposed bride, and she had now come to carry out her threat.

She had asked her brother to come and dine with her, but he had declined.