But now her heart was beating so fast and her throat was so dry she knew the words would stick at the very time she needed them most.

Feeling as if she were about to have a tooth pulled, she sank into a large upholstered rocking chair to wait.

It tipped back so far that her toes could not reach the floor, and she sprang out again in a hurry.

One could never feel at ease in an infantile position like that.
Then she tried a straight chair, imitating the pose of a majestic gentlewoman in one of the portraits on the panelled wall.

It was one of Madam's grand ancestors she conjectured.