The great lady summoned Dr.Lelius to her aid, and she, the German, and Daphne, kept up a sparring conversation, in which Mrs.
Barnes, driven on by a secret wrath, showed herself rather noisier than Englishwomen generally are.

She was a little impertinent, the Duchess thought, decidedly aggressive, and not witty enough to carry it off.
Meanwhile, Daphne had instantly perceived that Mrs.Fairmile and Roger had disappeared into the conservatory; and though she talked incessantly through their absence, she felt each minute of it.

When they came back for tea, she imagined that Roger looked embarrassed, while Mrs.Fairmile was all gaiety, chatting to her companion, her face raised to his, in the manner of one joyously renewing an old intimacy.

As they slowly advanced up the long room, Daphne felt it almost intolerable to watch them, and her pulses began to race.

_Why_ had she never been told of this thing?
That was what rankled; and the Southern wildness in her blood sent visions of the past and terrors of the future hurrying through her brain, even while she went on talking fast and recklessly to the Duchess.
* * * * * At tea-time conversation turned on the various beautiful things which the room contained--its Nattiers, its Gobelins, its two _dessus de portes_ by Boucher, and its two cabinets, of which one had belonged to Beaumarchais and the other to the _Appartement du Dauphin_ at Versailles.
Daphne restrained herself for a time, asked questions, and affected no special knowledge.