Well she remembered the dreadful morning when Lady Kate went off with Captain Brentwood, of the Artillery.

Well she remembered the Countess going into hysterics.

But this was worse than that; this touched her nearer home.
"Oh you naughty girl! Oh you wicked, ungrateful girl; to go and do such a thing at a time like this, when I've been watching the paralysis creeping over him day by day! How shall I tell him?
How shall I ever tell him?
He will have a stroke as sure as fate.

He was going to have one without this.

I dare not tell him till breakfast, and yet I ought to tell him at once.