Till my father's death my husband and I lived in the manor-house with him, so that I have never lived away from the spot.' She was poor.

That, and the change of name, sufficiently accounted for the inn-servant's ignorance of her continued existence within the walls of her old home.
It was growing dusk, and he still walked with her.

A woman's head arose from the declivity before them, and as she drew nearer, Christine asked him to go back.
'This is the wife of the farmer who shares the house,' she said.

'She is accustomed to come out and meet me whenever I walk far and am benighted.
I am obliged to walk everywhere now.' The farmer's wife, seeing that Christine was not alone, paused in her advance, and Nicholas said, 'Dear Christine, if you are obliged to do these things, I am not, and what wealth I can command you may command likewise.

They say rolling stones gather no moss; but they gather dross sometimes.