And he accepted it." Mrs.Boyce's thin fine mouth curled a little.
"So you suppose that Aldous had his wits about him on that great occasion as much as you had ?" Marcella first started, then quivered with nervous indignation.
"Mother," she said, "I can't bear it.

It's not the first time that you have talked as though I had taken some unfair advantage--made an unworthy bargain.

It is too hard too.

Other people may think what they like, but that you--" Her voice failed her, and the tears came into her eyes.

She was tired and over-excited, and the contrast between the atmosphere of flattery and consideration which surrounded her in Aldous's company, in the village, or at the Winterbournes, and this tone which her mother so often took with her when they were alone, was at the moment hardly to be endured.
Mrs.Boyce looked up more gravely.
"You misunderstand me, my dear," she said quietly.