Hilda answered to the mood.

And Sarah Gailey, though she said little and never finished a sentence, did her best to answer to it by noddings and nervous appreciative smiles, and swift turnings of the head from one to another.
When Mr.Cannon and Mrs.Lessways, in half a dozen serious words interjected among the archness, had adversely settled the fate of a whole family in Calder Street, there remained scarcely a trace, in the company's demeanour, of the shamed consciousness that only two days before its members had been divided by disastrous enmities and that one of them had lacked the means of life.
II "Oh no! my dear girl! You're too modest--that's what's the matter with you," said George Cannon eagerly to his half-sister.

The epithet flattered but did not allay her timidity.

To Hilda it seemed mysteriously romantic.
The supreme topic had worked its way into the conversation.

Uppermost in the minds of all, it seemed to have forced itself out by its own intrinsic energy, against the will of the company.