As soon as she had done, she silently pushed the manuscript away, and put her hands on a sudden over her face.

When she withdrew them, all the four persons in the room noticed a change in her.

Something in her expression had altered, subtly and silently; something which made the familiar features suddenly look strange, even to her sister and Miss Garth; something, through all after years, never to be forgotten in connection with that day--and never to be described.
The first words she spoke were addressed to Mr.Pendril.
"May I ask one more favor," she said, "before you enter on your business arrangements ?" Mr.Pendril replied ceremoniously by a gesture of assent.

Magdalen's resolution to possess herself of the Instructions did not appear to have produced a favorable impression on the lawyer's mind.
"You mentioned what you were so kind as to do, in our interests, when you first wrote to Mr.Michael Vanstone," she continued.

"You said you had told him all the circumstances.