She could not trust herself to speak.

Despised Jean, whom she had not troubled to ask to her parties, whom she had always felt she could treat anyhow, so poor was she and of no account.

It had been bad enough to know that she was on terms of intimacy with Pamela Reston and her brother: to hear Miss Reston say that she meant to take her to London and entertain for her and to hear her suggest that Muriel might go to Jean's parties had been galling, but she had thrust the recollection from her, reflecting that fine ladies said much that they did not mean, and that probably the promised visit to London would never materialise.

And now to be told this! A fortune: Jean--it was too absurd! When she spoke, her voice was shrill with anger in spite of her efforts to control it.
"It can't be true.

The Jardines have no relations that could leave them money." "This isn't a relation," Mrs.Jowett explained.