Was there really going to be complete disruption between him and Bianca--worse, an ugly scandal?
She, who knew her sister better, perhaps, than anyone, remembered from schoolroom days Bianca's moody violence when anything had occurred to wound her--remembered, too, the long fits of brooding that followed.
This affair, which she had tried to persuade herself was exaggerated, loomed up larger than ever.

It was not an isolated squib; it was a lighted match held to a train of gunpowder.

This girl of the people, coming from who knew where, destined for who knew what--this young, not very beautiful, not even clever child, with nothing but a sort of queer haunting naivete' to give her charm--might even be a finger used by Fate! Cecilia sat very still before that sudden vision of the girl.
There was no staid mare to guard that foal with the dark devotion of her eye.

There was no wise whinnying to answer back those tiny whinnies; no long look round to watch the little creature nodding to sleep on its thin trembling legs in the hot sunlight; no ears to prick up and hoofs to stamp at the approach of other living things.

These thoughts passed through Cecilia's mind and were gone, being too far and pale to stay.
Turning the page which she had not been reading, she heaved a sigh.
Thyme sighed also.
"These worms are fearfully interesting," she said.