Be--" Anne faced her, an unmistakable sneer on her lips.

"I'm used to waiting," she said huskily.
"She has waited a year and more," said George aggressively, glowering at his mother.

It was a significant but singularly unhappy remark.
For the first time in their lives, they saw their mother in tears.

It was so incomprehensible that at first both Anne and her brother laughed, not in mirth, but because they were so stupefied that they did not know what they were doing, and laughter was the simplest means of expressing an acute sense of embarrassment.

Then they stood aloof and watched the amazing exposition, fascinated, unbelieving.