Yes: this uncomfortable smiling, and unreasonable crying, and interminable whispering; these appearances of the absent, and disappearances of the present; I shall know this very day what they all mean." "Really, I do not understand you." "Oh, never mind; I am an old woman, and I am in my dotage.

For all that, perhaps you will allow me two words alone with my daughter." "I retire, madame," and he disappeared with a bow to her, and an anxious look at Rose.

She did not need this; she clenched her teeth, and braced herself up to stand a severe interrogatory.
Mother and daughter looked at one another, as if to measure forces, and then, instead of questioning her as she had intended, the baroness sank back in her chair and wept aloud.

Rose was all unprepared for this.

She almost screamed in a voice of agony, "O mamma! mamma! O God! kill me where I stand for making my mother weep!" "My girl," said the baroness in a broken voice, and with the most touching dignity, "may you never know what a mother feels who finds herself shut out from her daughters' hearts.