A general uneasiness of mind was gradually induced, and the chapel-building project, with singular confusion of motives, represented to her at once a worldly ambition and a discipline for the soul.

It was a long time before she spoke of it, and in the interval she suffered more and more from a vague mental unrest.
Letters were coming to her from Cecily.

Less by what they contained than by what they omitted, she knew that Cecily was undergoing a great change.

Miriam put at length certain definite questions, and the answers she received were unsatisfactory, alarming.

The correspondence became a distinct source of trouble.