There was a woman at the other end of the table however who would not stop talking.

She was in the midst of some story and heeded not the signals of her hostess.

Jane Repton wished she would go on talking for the rest of the evening, and recognised that the wish was a waste of time and grew flurried.

She had to make up her mind to say something which should be true or to lie.

Yet she was too staunch to betray the confidence of her friend unless the betrayal meant her friend's salvation.