But Langholm was not deceived.

There was an ulterior meaning to him, and a very unpleasant one withal.

Yet he did not feel unjustifiably insulted; he looked within, and felt justly rebuked; not for anything he had said or done, but for what he found in his heart at that moment.

Langholm entered the drawing-room in profound depression, but his state of mind was no longer due to anything that had just been said.
The scene awaiting him was surely calculated to deepen that dejection.
Rachel had left the gentlemen with the proud mien and the unbroken spirit which she had maintained at table without trace of effort; they found her sobbing on Morna Woodgate's shoulder, in distress so poignant and so pitiful that even Steel stopped short upon the threshold.

In an instant she was on her feet, the tears still thick in her noble eyes, but the spirit once more alight behind the tears.
"Don't go!" she begged them, in a voice that pierced one heart at least.
"Stop and help me, for God's sake! I can't bear it.