CHAPTER XVIII 243 threatened ."
Miss Ingram took a book , leant back in her chair , and so declined further conversation . I watched her for nearly half-an-hour : during all that time she never turned a page , and her face grew momently darker , more dissatisfied , and more sourly expressive of disappointment . She had obviously not heard anything to her advantage : and it seemed to me , from her prolonged fit of gloom and taciturnity , that she herself , notwithstanding her professed indifference , attached undue importance to whatever revelations had been made her .
Meantime , Mary Ingram , Amy and Louisa Eshton , declared they dared not go alone ; and yet they all wished to go . A negotiation was opened through the medium of the ambassador , Sam ; and after much pacing to and fro , till , I think , the said Sam ' s calves must have ached with the exercise , permission was at last , with great difficulty , extorted from the rigorous Sibyl , for the three to wait upon her in a body .
Their visit was not so still as Miss Ingram ' s had been : we heard hysterical giggling and little shrieks proceeding from the library ; and at the end of about twenty minutes they burst the door open , and came running across the hall , as if they were half-scared out of their wits .
" I am sure she is something not right !" they cried , one and all . " She told us such things ! She knows all about us !" and they sank breathless into the various seats the gentlemen hastened to bring them .
Pressed for further explanation , they declared she had told them of things they had said and done when they were mere children ; described books and ornaments they had in their boudoirs at home : keepsakes that different relations had presented to them . They affirmed that she had even divined their thoughts , and had whispered in the ear of each the name of the person she liked best in the world , and informed them of what they most wished for .