The line of the Tancreds should go on through her! But never, never! That should never be! If they were counting upon that they were counting in vain.
The marriage was never intended to be anything but an empty ceremony, for mercenary reasons.

There must be no mistake about this.

What if Lord Tancred had such ideas, too?
And she quivered suddenly and caught in her breath with the horror of this thought.
And who was Cyril?
Zara had no knowledge of Cyril, any more than of Wrayth! But she did not ask.
If Francis Markrute had heard this conversation he would have been very much annoyed with himself, and would have blamed himself for stupidity.
He, of course, should have seen that his niece was sufficiently well coached, in all the details that she should know, not to be led into these pitfalls.
Ethelrida felt a sensation of a sort of petrified astonishment.

There is a French word, _ahuri_, which expresses her emotion exactly, but there is no English equivalent.

Tristram's fiance was evidently quite ignorant of the simplest facts about him, or his family, or his home! Her eyes had blazed at Ethelrida's last speech, with a look of self-defence and defiance.