She had been struck with the sudden tightening of the guardian's lip, the sudden stiffening of his hand lying on the table.

She wondered anxiously what was the matter.
In the library afterwards, Lady Cynthia, Mrs.Friend, and the two girls--his daughter and his guest--who had come with Mr.Parish, settled into a little circle near the wood-fire which the chilliness of the May evening made pleasant.
Helena Pitstone meanwhile walked away by herself to a distant part of the room and turned over photographs, with what seemed to Mrs.Friend a stormy hand.

And as she did so, everyone in the room was aware of her, of the brilliance and power of the girl's beauty, and of the energy that like an aura seemed to envelop her personality.

Lady Cynthia made several attempts to capture her, but in vain.

Helena would only answer in monosyllables, and if approached, retreated further into the dim room, ostensibly in search of a book on a distant shelf, really in flight.