So with a gentle step she retreated through the door, and then Lady Meredith, having tried what a conciliatory whisper with her mother would do, followed her.

Alas, the conciliatory whisper was altogether ineffectual.
The two ladies said nothing as they descended the stairs, but when they had regained the drawing-room they looked with blank horror into each other's faces.

What were they to do now?
Of such a tragedy as this they had had no remotest preconception.

Was it absolutely the case that Fanny Robarts was to walk out of Lady Lufton's house as a declared enemy--she who, before her marriage as well as since, had been almost treated as an adopted daughter of the family?
"Oh, Fanny, why did you answer my mother in that way ?" said Lady Meredith.

"You saw that she was vexed, She had other things to vex her besides this about Mr.Robarts." "And would not you answer any one who attacked Sir George ?" "No, not my own mother.