And we are both certain that on Tuesday she made him understand in some way or other that she wouldn't marry him, and that is why he went off to Ullswater, and why he made up his mind to go south before his time is up.' 'Tuesday ?' cried Mrs.Leyburn.

'In that walk, do you mean, when Catherine looked so tired afterward?
You think he proposed in that walk ?' She was in a maze of bewilderment and excitement.
'Something like it--but if he did, she said "No;" and what I want to know is _why_ she said "No."' 'Why, of course, because she didn't care for him!' exclaimed Mrs.
Leyburn, opening her blue eyes wider and wider.

'Catherine's not like most girls; she would always know what she felt, and would never keep a man in suspense.' 'Well, I don't somehow believe,' said Mrs.Thornburgh boldly, 'that she doesn't care for him.

He is just the young man Catherine might care for.
You can see that yourself.' Mrs.Leyburn once more laid down her knitting and stared at her visitor.
Mrs.Thornburgh, after all her meditations, had no very precise idea as to _why_ she was at that moment in the Burwood living-room bombarding Mrs.Leyburn in this fashion.

All she knew was that she had sallied forth determined somehow to upset the situation, just as one gives a shake purposely to a bundle of spillikins on the chance of more favorable openings.