'She did, she actually did,' he assured her, as though trying to overcome an inevitable incredulity. 'I was standing in the middle of the path, and she'—he paused, seeking a word—something to convey the monstrous fact.
'Shoved you off it?' suggested Lady Blixworth, in no difficulty for the necessary word.
'She pushed me violently aside. I all but fell!'
'Then she scuttled off?'
This time he accepted the description. 'Exactly what she did—exactly. I can describe it in no other way. She must have been mad!'
'What can have driven her mad at Barslett?' asked his friend innocently.
'Nothing. We were kindness itself. Her troubles were not due to her visit to us. We made her absolutely one of the family.'
'You tried, you mean,' she suggested.
'Precisely. We tried—with what success you see. It is heart-breaking—heart——'
'And what did Mortimer say?'