The Baroness turned her smile toward him, and she instantly felt that she had been observed to be fibbing.

She had struck a false note.

But who were these people to whom such fibbing was not pleasing?
If they were annoyed, the Baroness was equally so; and after the exchange of a few civil inquiries and low-voiced responses she took leave of Mrs.Acton.She begged Robert not to come home with her; she would get into the carriage alone; she preferred that.

This was imperious, and she thought he looked disappointed.

While she stood before the door with him--the carriage was turning in the gravel-walk--this thought restored her serenity.
When she had given him her hand in farewell she looked at him a moment.
"I have almost decided to dispatch that paper," she said.
He knew that she alluded to the document that she had called her renunciation; and he assisted her into the carriage without saying anything.