"You are a very wise woman, aunt, but you are a little transparent now and then," she said.
"At least he shall have a fair trial without prejudice or favor--and if he fails, as fail he will, we shall find the means of punishing him." "We ?" said the elder lady, a trifle maliciously.
The girl nodded as she moved towards the doorway, and then turned a moment with the folds of the big red curtain flung behind her.

It forced up the sweeping lines of a figure so delicately molded that its slenderness was scarcely apparent, for Maud Barrington still wore a long somber dress that had assisted in her triumphs in the city.

It emphasized the clear pallor of her skin and the brightness of her eyes, as she held herself very erect in a pose which, while assumed in mockery, had yet in it something that was almost imperial.
"Yes," she said.

"We.

You know who is the power behind the throne at Silverdale, and what the boys call me.