The thought of the conversation in which her conduct had been made a subject for discussion with Denham roused her anger; but, as she instantly felt, she had scarcely the right to grudge William any use of her name, seeing what her fault against him had been from first to last.

And yet Denham! She had a view of him as a judge.

She figured him sternly weighing instances of her levity in this masculine court of inquiry into feminine morality and gruffly dismissing both her and her family with some half-sarcastic, half-tolerant phrase which sealed her doom, as far as he was concerned, for ever.

Having met him so lately, the sense of his character was strong in her.

The thought was not a pleasant one for a proud woman, but she had yet to learn the art of subduing her expression.