Hetta, as soon as she had dismissed her lover, went up at once to her own room.  Thither she was soon followed by her mother, whose anxious ear had heard the closing of the front door.  ‘Well; what has he said?’ asked Lady Carbury.  Hetta was in tears,—­or very nigh to tears,—­ struggling to repress them, and struggling almost successfully.  ’You have found that what we told you about that woman was all true.’

‘Enough of it was true,’ said Hetta, who, angry as she was with her lover, was not on that account less angry with her mother for disturbing her bliss.

’What do you mean by that, Hetta?  Had you not better speak to me openly?’

’I say, mamma, that enough was true.  I do not...