"Why don't you obey my orders ?" I looked at my mistress.

If she had directed me to knock Mr.James Smith down, big as he was, I think at that moment I could have done it.
"Do as he tells you, William," she said, squeezing one of her hands firmly over her bosom, as if she was trying to keep down the rising indignation in that way.

"This is the last order of his giving that I shall ask you to obey." "Do you threaten me, you mad--" He finished the question by a word I shall not repeat.
"I tell you," she answered, in clear, ringing, resolute tones, "that you have outraged me past all forgiveness and all endurance, and that you shall never insult me again as you have insulted me to-night." After saying those words she fixed one steady look on him, then turned away and walked slowly to the door.
A minute previously Mr.Meeke had summoned courage enough to get up and leave the room quietly.

I noticed him walking demurely away, close to the wall, with his fiddle held under one tail of his long frock-coat, as if he was afraid that the savage passions of Mr.James Smith might be wreaked on that unoffending instrument.

He got to the door before my mistress.