She disliked the turn things had taken quite intensely.

The indecency of it afflicted her.

The suffering implied by the tone appalled her.

She looked at Mary furtively, with eyes that were full of apprehension.
But if she had hoped to find that these words had been spoken without understanding of their meaning, she was at once disappointed.

Mary lay back in her chair, frowning slightly, and looking, Katharine thought, as if she had lived fifteen years or so in the space of a few minutes.
"There are some things, don't you think, that one can't be mistaken about ?" Mary said, quietly and almost coldly.