There was a look of calm defiance as they met the disdainful gaze of the aristocrats across the gulf of two centuries.
The two superior bodies absolutely refused to sit in the same room with the commons.

They might under the same roof, but in the same room--never.
There was an historic precedent for this refusal.

The three estates had always acted as three separate bodies.

So the demand in itself was an encroachment upon the ancient dignity of the two superior bodies, which they resented.

But they might better have yielded.