Mrs.Repton was inclined to throw up her hands in despair.

She was baffled and she was little likely, as she knew, to get any light.
"If you take the man you know best of all," she used to say, "you still know nothing at all of what he's like when he's alone with a woman, especially if it's a woman for whom he cares--unless the woman talks." Very often the woman does talk and the most intimate and private facts come in a little while to be shouted from the housetops.

But Stella Ballantyne did not talk.

She had talked once, and once only, under a great stress to Jane Repton; but even then Thresk had nothing to do with her story at all.
Thresk turned quickly towards her.
"In a moment Mrs.Carruthers will get up.

Her eyes are collecting the women and the women are collecting their shoes.