In any case she would keep the upper hand.
Nevertheless there was an inner voice which mocked, through all the patting and curling and rolling applied by Annette's skilled hands to her mistress's brown hair.

Had not Falloden himself arranged this whole adventure ahead ?--found her a horse and groom, while she was still in the stage of thinking about them, and settled the place of rendezvous?
She could not deny it; but her obstinate confidence in her own powers and will was not thereby in the least affected.

She was going because it amused her to go; not because he prescribed it.
The following day, Saturday, witnessed an unexpected stream of callers on Mrs.Hooper.She was supposed to be at home on Saturday afternoons to undergraduates; but the undergraduates who came were few and shy.

They called out of respect for the Reader, whose lectures they attended and admired.

But they seldom came a second time; for although Alice had her following of young men, it was more amusing to meet her anywhere else than under the eyes of her small, peevish mother, who seemed to be able to talk of nothing else than ailments and tabloids, and whether the Bath or the Buxton waters were the better for her own kind of rheumatism.
On this afternoon, however, the Hoopers' little drawing-room and the lawn outside were crowded with folk.