She sometimes said such things as these, when she had been particularly inert and desponding, -'Ah, Molly, you must let my goodness lie fallow for a while! It has borne such a wonderful crop this year.I have been so pretty-behaved -if you knew all!' Or, 'Really, Molly, my virtue must come down from the clouds! It was strained to the utmost in London - and I find it is like a kite - after soaring aloft for some time, it suddenly comes down, and gets tangled in all sorts of briars and brambles; which things are an allegory, unless you can bring yourself to believe in my extraordinary goodness while I was away - giving me a sort of right to fall foul of all mamma's briars and brambles now.'
But Molly had had some experience of Cynthia's whim of perpetually hinting at a mystery which she did not mean to reveal in the Mr Preston days, and, although she was occasionally piqued into curiosity, Cynthia's allusions at something more in the background fell in general on rather deaf ears.
One day the mystery burst its shell, and came out in the shape of an offer made to Cynthia by Mr Henderson - and refused.Under all the circumstances, Molly could not appreciate the heroic goodness so often alluded to.The revelation of the secret at last took place in this way.Mrs Gibson breakfasted in bed: she had done so ever since she had had the influenza; and, consequently, her own private letters always went up on her breakfast-tray.One morning she came into the drawing-room earlier than usual, with an open letter in her hand.