"But no matter.

Go on." Henrietta hesitated.

Her dignity as a married woman, and the reality of her grief, revolted against the shallow acuteness of the schoolgirl.

But she found herself no better able to resist Agatha's domineering than she had been in her childhood, and much more desirous of obtaining her sympathy.

Besides, she had already learnt to tell the story herself rather than leave its narration to others, whose accounts did not, she felt, put her case in the proper light.