As for Lady Lucy, she was silent, and rather grave.

In her secret mind she thought that young girls should not be vehement or presumptuous.

It was a misfortune that this pretty creature had not been more reasonably brought up; a mother's hand had been wanting.

While not only Mr.Ferrier and Mrs.Colwood, sitting side by side in the background, but everybody else present, in some measure or degree, was aware of some play of feeling in the scene, beyond and behind the obvious, some hidden forces, or rather, perhaps, some emerging relation, which gave it significance and thrill.

The duel was a duel of brains--unequal at that; what made it fascinating was the universal or typical element in the clash of the two personalities--the man using his whole strength, more and more tyrannously, more and more stubbornly--the girl resisting, flashing, appealing, fighting for dear life, now gaining, now retreating--and finally overborne.
For Marsham's staying powers, naturally, were the greater.