Edna swept on, sweeping with her the bewildered and embarrassed protests trembling on Miss Farmer's lips.
"No one could ever fear harsh judgments from you, Miss Farmer. I know that, and that's why I've spoken to you. And because I want you to try and prevent others from judging and condemning unheard.... There'll be talk—oh, I know human nature, and that it's impossible for things to be otherwise—but at least I may count upon you for stemming the tide a little, until the way is rather clearer. Believe me, there will be a crisis—a solution of some sort will come. I know that the present state of tension can't last."
It may reasonably be conceded that Lady Rossiter had ample cause for the assertion.
She sent Miss Farmer away, muddle and incoherency on her inarticulate tongue, and in her starting eyes fears visible for all to see.
Edna thought of Mark Easter, and asked herself whether one word from her might not save Mark from endless vexation and discomfort when the inevitable débâcle should come upon the impossible situation. She had for too long been accustomed to look upon herself as the only feminine element in Mark's mutilated life, to entertain on his behalf fears of a more serious kind.
But Mark was thinking of his sister's wedding and of her many, and essentially unreasonable, attempts to turn his small house into a scene of extensive and prolonged hospitalities for which it was eminently unfitted in every possible way.
Edna postponed the utterance of her one word.
She only offered, very gently and matter-of-factly, to enact the part of mistress of the house when and whenever her services might be acceptable. Mark Easter thanked her very warmly and thought that he could "manage."
That the process of "managing" was not an easy one was descried shortly before the wedding by Lady Rossiter and her husband, inadvertently entering the villa and finding it a sea of frenzied preparation.
Aggressively new trunks stood in the small entrance, effectively blocking the staircase, and from the drawing-room door, propped open by a piano-stool, came the sound of voices raised in considerable agitation.