Her first impression of Mrs.Vimpany--so sincerely repented, so eagerly atoned for--had been the right impression after all! Younger, lighter, and quicker than the doctor's wife, Iris reached the door first, and laid her hand on the lock.
"Wait a minute," she said.
Mrs.Vimpany hesitated.

For the first time in her life at a loss what to say, she could only sign to Iris to stand back.

Iris refused to move.

She put her terrible question in the plainest words: "How does Lord Harry know that I am in this house ?" The wretched woman (listening intently for the sound of a step on the stairs) refused to submit to a shameful exposure, even now.

To her perverted moral sense, any falsehood was acceptable, as a means of hiding herself from discovery by Iris.