Her father's misadventure was so much worse than she had expected that the horror of it broke down her self-control completely; the solid ground seemed to crumble under her feet, and if she had not sunk into the nearest chair she must have fallen.

Sitting crouched in a corner, with her hands pressed tightly against her face, striving for the mastery over those unruly emotions of hers, she failed to hear sounds of another arrival, and did not even look up when Jervis Ferrars entered, without any ceremony of knocking.
A moment he stood in silence before her, not liking to disturb her, nor even to be a witness of her breakdown, for he knew how proud she was, and the humiliation it would be to her to be watched under such conditions.

Then, seeing the door of the bedroom half-open, he passed silently and softly into the room, closing the door behind him, and Mary was alone again.

It might have been ten minutes later before he reappeared, and then the anxious look had left his face; he still looked concerned, but that was chiefly on Mary's account.
"Miss Selincourt, I am fearfully disappointed in you," he announced gravely, and Mary's head came up with a jerk.
"I--I did not know that you had come," she faltered.
"All the more reason why you should have been brave and courageous, until there was someone on whom to shift the responsibility," he said quietly.
Mary reddened, and her tears disappeared as if by magic.

"Is it possible that you do not know the terrible danger my father has been in ?" she asked frigidly.
"Yes, I know.