A Fatal Silence, Vol. 2 (of 3) by Florence Marryat

THE SCANDAL SPREADS.

Of all Paula's acquaintances, Lady Bristowe was the most indignant at the turn affairs had taken. She had quite expected that the sudden devotion she had conceived for the young wife was reciprocal, and that she would be the first if not the only person admitted to weep over her trouble with her, and carry the interesting details far and wide. And when she found that day after day she received the same message, that Mrs Hal Rushton was not well enough to see anybody, she became affronted (as foolish people are apt to be), and from having been Paula's warmest partisan became ready to cavil at her actions before anyone. The insult (as Lady Bristowe considered it) was greatly aggravated one day when, as her carriage stood before the Hall door and she received the same answer to her inquiries, the shabby figure of the Widow Rushton was seen to walk up the drive and enter the charmed portals without a question.