"Tell the nurse to bring down the children."
"They are not at home, my lord."
"Not at home! Surely they are not out in this rain!—and so late!"
"They went out this afternoon, my lord: and have not come in, I believe."
"There, that will do," tartly interposed the dowager. "You don't know anything about it, and you may go."
"Lady Kirton, where are the children?"
"Where you can't get at them, I say," was Lady Kirton's response. "You don't think I am going to suffer Maude's children to be domineered over by a wretch of a step-mother—perhaps poisoned."
He confronted her in his wrath, his eyes flashing.
"Madam!"
"Oh, you need not 'Madam' me. Maude's gone, and I shall act for her."