No mistake was possible.

His mother herself! The old lady, naturally enough, mistook my confusion for shyness.

With perfect tact and kindness she entered into conversation with me.

In another minute I was walking side by side with the woman who had sternly repudiated me as a member of her family; feeling, I own, terribly discomposed, and not knowing in the least whether I ought or ought not to assume the responsibility, in my husband's absence, of telling her who I was.
In another minute my familiar landlady, walking on the other side of my mother-in-law, decided the question for me.

I happened to say that I supposed we must by that time be near the end of our walk--the little watering-place called Broadstairs.