I sat leaning back in a large chair by the table, with my bouquet in my lap, buttoning and unbuttoning absently my long white gloves.

In a moment I heard Mr.Langenau come down-stairs alone: he had left Miss Lowder in the dressing-room to rest there: he came directly toward the library.
He came half-way in the door, then paused.

"May I speak to you ?" he said slowly, fixing his eyes on mine.

"I seem to be the only one who is forbidden, of those who have offended you and of those who have not." "No one has said what you have," I said very faintly.
In an instant he was standing beside me, with one hand resting on the table.
"Will you listen to me," he said, bending a little toward me and speaking in a quick, low voice, "I did say what you have a right to resent; but I said it in a moment when I was not master of my words.

I had just heard something that made me doubt my senses: and my only thought was how to save myself, and not to show how I was staggered by it.