When Nelly makes up her mind to have a friend, she always has her way.

Good-by, Betty." Betty courtesied, and Nelly left the Old Swan, returning at once to Frances, who was waiting in the barge.

On their way back to the palace neither Frances nor Nelly spoke after Nelly had told what she had heard at the inn.

Usually Nelly was laughing or talking, or both, and when a woman of her temperament is silent, she is thinking.

In this instance her thinking brought her to two conclusions: first, that Hamilton was the man Frances loved and hated; and second, that it was his face she had recognized on the night Roger Wentworth was killed.
The dangerous element in these calculations was that they were sure to reach the king's ear as soon as Nelly found an opportunity to impart them.