But all her latent womanhood speedily rallied to meet this strange and but half-comprehended emergency.

The impulse now uppermost was to retain her self-control and reach the seclusion of her own room.

How she was to endure the long hours she scarcely knew.
She did not dare to think.

Indeed, the effort was scarcely possible, for her mind was at first in tumult, with only one thing clear, a poignant sense of loss and trouble.
Graydon was a long time away, longer than he had ever been before when acting as her escort.

While she felt this neglect, and interpreted it naturally, she was not sorry.