Mrs.Thornburgh looked at him in amazement.
'Do you mean to say,' he asked, in raised tones, 'that you didn't notice that from the moment you first introduced Robert to Catherine Leyburn, he had practically no attention for anybody else ?' Mrs.Thornburgh gazed at him--her memory flew back over the evening-and her impulsive contradiction died on her lips.

It was now her turn to ejaculate-- 'Catherine!' she said feebly.

'Catherine! how absurd!' But she turned and, with quickened breath, looked out of the window after the retreating figures.

Mrs.Thornburgh went up to bed that night an inch taller.

She had never felt herself more exquisitely indispensable, more of a personage..