I ask you again--you who have been listening to her--what does she mean ?" Mrs.Presty's sense of her own importance refused to submit to being passed over in this way.
"However insolently you may behave, Catherine, you will not succeed in provoking me.

Your mother is bound to open your eyes to the truth.
You have a rival in your husband's affections; and that rival is your governess.

Take your own course now; I have no more to say." With her head high in the air--looking the picture of conscious virtue--the old lady walked out.
At the same moment Randal seized his first opportunity of speaking.
He addressed himself gently and respectfully to his sister-in-law.

She refused to hear him.

The indignation which Mrs.Presty had roused in her made no allowances, and was blind to all sense of right.
"Don't trouble yourself to account for your silence," she said, most unjustly.