The two girls confronted each other, and, vaguely, perhaps, each felt the strangeness of the situation.

Fanny was twenty, Diana twenty-three.

They were of an age when girls are generally under the guidance or authority of their elders; comparatively little accustomed, in the normal family, to discuss affairs or take independent decisions.
Yet here they met, alone and untrammelled; as hostess and guest in the first place; as kinswomen, yet comparative strangers to each other, and conscious of a secret dislike, each for the other.

On the one side, an exultant and partly cruel consciousness of power; on the other, feelings of repugnance and revolt, only held in check by the forces of a tender and scrupulous nature.
Fanny cleared her throat.
"Well, of course, Mrs.Colwood's told me all you've been saying to her.
And I don't say I'm surprised." Diana opened her large eyes.
"Surprised at what ?" "Surprised--well!--surprised you didn't see your way all at once, and that kind of thing.

I know I'd want to ask a lot of questions--shouldn't I, just! Why, that's what I expected.