She resolved, therefore, to do so; and she sometimes flattered herself that she had kept her resolution.
These were bad times for the doctor, and bad times for Mary too.

She had declared that she could live without going to Greshamsbury; but she did not find it so easy.

She had been going to Greshamsbury all her life, and it was as customary with her to be there as at home.
Such old customs are not broken without pain.

Had she left the place it would have been far different; but, as it was, she daily passed the gates, daily saw and spoke to some of the servants, who knew her as well as they did the young ladies of the family--was in hourly contact, as it were, with Greshamsbury.

It was not only that she did not go there, but that everyone knew that she had suddenly discontinued doing so.