"To tell the honest truth, I'm devoutly thankful for one thing," observed Andrew, with the first smile he had permitted himself, and even it was appropriately grim: "this will put Madge Dunbar's nose out of joint."
"Thank Heaven for that!" replied Mrs. Ramornie devoutly.
"She meant to get him," said Mrs. Donaldson. "I never saw a woman try harder."
"If you'd been living in the house, you'd have seen still more of her trying," replied her brother.
Another fierce shower beat upon the window, with it the gale rose higher and the branches clashed more noisily. Even behind curtains one felt in the presence of something elemental. Silence fell on the three, and when they spoke again it was more solemnly than ever.
"It will make a considerable difference to us all, of course," said Mrs. Donaldson.
Her brother seemed to take this as a question, for he nodded gravely and answered—
"Oh, decidedly it will make that."
She mused for a moment and then turned to her sister.