She bent her head and turned her back to them all, and went out of the room.
The male Hautvilles looked at one another.

"What's come over the girl now ?" said Abner, in his surly bass growl.
"She's a woman," said his father, and he stamped his booted feet on the floor with a great clamp.
Madelon meantime fled up-stairs to her chamber, with her first love-letter from Lot Gordon in her pocket.

Until this the reality of all that had happened had not fully come home to her.

Without acknowledging it to herself she had entertained a half-hope that Lot might not have been entirely in earnest--that he might not hold her to her promise.

And then there had been the uncertainty as to his recovery.