"To act a farce for their benefit! That fellow will explode when he gets downstairs.

I see how it is.

This woman, Chump, is making them behave like schoolgirls." He conceived the idea sharply, and forthwith, without any preparation, he was ready to treat these high-aspiring ladies like schoolgirls.

Nor was there a lack of justification; for when they came down to his shouts in the passage, they hushed, and held a finger aloft, and looked altogether so unlike what they aimed at being, that Wilfrid's sense of mastery became almost contempt.
"I know perfectly what you have to tell me," he said.

"Mrs.Chump is here, you have quarrelled with her, and she has shut her door, and you have shut yours.