A few months more and Mrs.Baske was to be a widow, childless, left in possession of some eight hundred a year, her house at Bartles, and a local importance to which she was not indifferent.
With the exception of her brother, away in London, she had no near kin.
It would now have been a great solace to her if Cecily Doran could have been her companion; but the young girl was in Paris, or Berlin, or St.
Petersburg, and, as Miriam was soon to learn, the material distance between them meant little in comparison with the spiritual remoteness which resulted from Cecily's education under Mrs.Lessingham.

They corresponded, however, and at first frequently; but letters grew shorter on both sides, and arrived less often.

The two were now to meet for the first time since Cecily was a child of fourteen.
The ladies arrived at the villa about eleven o'clock.

Miriam had shown herself indisposed to speak of them, both last evening, when Mallard was present, and again this morning when alone with her relatives; at breakfast she was even more taciturn than usual, and kept her room for an hour after the meal.

Then, however, she came to sit with Eleanor, and remained when the visitors were announced.
Mrs.Lessingham did not answer to the common idea of a strong-minded woman.