She was very far from expecting the results.

Alice was too noble herself to entertain suspicions of the ignobility of others.

Certainty she was obliged to confront, as she had confronted the affair of the night before.

It was, of course, the certainty that Margaret had been guilty of a disgraceful and treacherous deed which made her uneasy in a vague fashion now and yet she did not for one second dream of what was to occur at the next meeting of the Zenith Club.
That was at Mrs.Sturtevant's and was the great affair of the year.
It was called, to distinguish it from the others, "The Annual Meeting," and upon that occasion the husbands and men friends of the members were invited and the function was in the evening.

Margaret had wished to have the club at her own house, before the affair of Martha Wallingford, but the annual occasions were regulated by the letters of the alphabet and it was incontrovertibly the turn of the letter S and Mrs.Sturtevant's right could not be questioned.