Mrs. Presty triumphed inwardly; chance had decided in her favor,
after all! "Don't you see," she said to her daughter, "that I am
here to answer for myself?"

Mrs. Linley still looked at Randal, and still spoke to him. "It
is impossible for me to insist on an explanation from my mother,"
she proceeded. "No matter what I may feel, I must remember that
she _is_ my mother. I ask you again--you who have been listening
to her--what does she mean?"

Mrs. Presty's sense of her own importance refused to submit to
being passed over in this way.

"However insolently you may behave, Catherine, you will not
succeed in provoking me. Your mother is bound to open your eyes
to the truth. You have a rival in your husband's affections; and
that rival is your governess. Take your own course now; I have no
more to say." With her head high in the air--looking the picture
of conscious virtue--the old lady walked out.

At the same moment Randal seized his first opportunity of
speaking.

He addressed himself gently and respectfully to his
sister-in-law. She refused to hear him. The indignation which
Mrs. Presty had roused in her made no allowances, and was blind
to all sense of right.

"Don't trouble yourself to account for your silence," she said,