"I don't wonder. You seemed to have lost your head."
"Probably then because it wasn't you."
"Fiddlesticks! You looked as though you could cut your throat for her. Didn't you feel that way? I am sure you did."
"You must be thinking of Cantillon. That's the way he looks at you. If he didn't, he wouldn't have any feeling at all. One might even say he was quite heartless."
Kate was laughing. In laughing she showed her red mouth and her teeth, small, white, a trifle uneven, and, though she continued to show them, her laughter ceased. With her red mouth open, she stared. That mouth closed, opened again. She was saying something.
Everybody was exclaiming. All were hurriedly getting up.
Paliser turned to Margaret. She had gone.
Verelst now was between him and her chair. He was bending over. Bending also was Mrs. Austen. On the other side were Cantillon, Ogston and Miss Bleecker.
Then, as the surprise of it lifted Paliser, he saw that they were lifting her.
"Brandy!" said Verelst. "Tell the man."