The greetings at first were civil, but very formal, as are those between nations which are nominally at peace, but which are waiting for a sign at which each may spring at the other’s throat.  In this instance the Juno from the Close had come quite prepared to declare her casus belli as complete, and to fling down her gauntlet, unless the enemy should at once yield to her everything demanded with an abject submission.  ‘Mrs French,’ she said, ’I have called to-day for a particular purpose, and I must address myself chiefly to Miss Camilla.’

‘Oh, certainly,’ said Mrs French.

‘I shall be delighted to hear anything from you, Miss Stanbury,’ said Camilla not without an air of bravado.  Arabella said nothing, but she put her hand up almost convulsively to the back of her head.

‘I have been told to-day by a friend of mine, Miss Camilla,’ began Miss Stanbury, ’that you declared yourself, in her presence, authorised by Mr Gibson to make a statement about my niece Dorothy.’

‘May I ask who was your friend?’ demanded Mrs French.

‘It was Mrs Clifford, of course,’ said Camilla.  ’There is nobody else would try to make difficulties.’

‘There need be no difficulty at all, Miss Camilla,’ said Miss Stanbury, ’if you will promise me that you will not repeat the statement.  It can’t be true.’

‘But it is true,’ said Camilla.

‘What is true?’ asked Miss Stanbury, surprised by the audacity of the girl.

’It is true that Mr Gibson authorised us to state what I did state when Mrs Clifford heard me.’

‘And what was that?’

’Only this, that people had been saying all about Exeter that he was going to be married to a young lady, and that as the report was incorrect, and as he had never had the remotest idea in his mind of making the young lady his wife.’  Camilla, as she said this, spoke with a great deal of emphasis, putting forward her chin and shaking her head, ’and as he thought it was uncomfortable both for the young lady and for himself, and as there was nothing in it, the least in the world, nothing at all, no glimmer of a foundation for the report, it would be better to have it denied everywhere.  That is what I said; and we had authority from the gentleman himself.  Arabella can say the same, and so can mamma, only mamma did not hear him.’  Nor had Camilla heard him, but that incident she did not mention.

The circumstances were, in Miss Stanbury’s judgment, becoming very remarkable.  She did not for a moment believe Camilla.  She did not believe that Mr Gibson had given to either of the Frenches any justification for the statement just made.  But Camilla had been so much more audacious than Miss Stanbury had expected, that that lady was for a moment struck dumb.  ‘I’m sure, Miss Stanbury,’ said Mrs French, ’we don’t want to give any offence to your niece—­very far from it.’

‘My niece doesn’t care about it two straws,’ said Miss Stanbury.  ’It is I that care.  And I care very much.  The things that have been said have been altogether false.’