Janet chatted on pleasantly about the one or two first nights she had seen, and Elfrida felt for a moment that the situation was hopelessly changed.

She had an intense, unreasonable indignation.
The maid had scarcely left the room when her blind search for means of retaliation succeeded.
"But one is not necessarily wholly Without diversions in the provinces.

I had, for instance, the pleasure of a visit from Mr.Cardiff." "Oh yes, I heard of that," Janet returned, smiling.

"My father thought that we were being improperly robbed of your society, and went to try to persuade you to return, didn't he?
I told him I thought it a shocking liberty; but you ought to forgive him--on the ground of his disappointment." The cup Elfrida held shook in its saucer, and she put it down to silence it.

Janet did not know, did not suspect, then.