I followed that most respectable person every step of the way to her own door." Thus far my pride had held me up.

It sustained me no longer.

I dropped back again into my chair, in undisguised dread of what was coming next.
"I gave you a look when I left you on the beach," pursued the landlady, growing louder and louder and redder and redder as she went on.

"A grateful woman would have understood that look.

Never mind! I won't do it again I overtook your mother-in-law at the gap in the cliff.