CHAPTER IX.
In the lesser withdrawing room, used when there was so small a party, Mrs.Winlow had gone to the piano and was playing to herself, for Lady Casterley, Lady Valleys, and her two daughters had drawn together as though united to face this invading rumour.
It was curious testimony to Miltoun's character that, no more here than in the dining-hall, was there any doubt of the integrity of his relations with Mrs.Noel.But whereas, there the matter was confined to its electioneering aspect, here that aspect was already perceived to be only the fringe of its importance.

Those feminine minds, going with intuitive swiftness to the core of anything which affected their own males, had already grasped the fact that the rumour would, as it were, chain a man of Miltoun's temper to this woman.
But they were walking on such a thin crust of facts, and there was so deep a quagmire of supposition beneath, that talk was almost painfully difficult.

Never before perhaps had each of these four women realized so clearly how much Miltoun--that rather strange and unknown grandson, son, and brother--counted in the scheme of existence.

Their suppressed agitation was manifested in very different ways.

Lady Casterley, upright in her chair, showed it only by an added decision of speech, a continual restless movement of one hand, a thin line between her usually smooth brows.