She saw the characteristics which made Virginia enthusiastic, but feared rather than admired them.

To put herself in Miss Nunn's hands might possibly result in a worse form of bondage than she suffered at the shop; she would never be able to please such a person, and failure, she imagined, would result in more or less contemptuous dismissal.
Then of a sudden, as it she had divined these thoughts, Rhoda assumed an air of gaiety of frank kindness.
'So it is your birthday?
I no longer keep count of mine, and couldn't tell you without a calculation what I am exactly.

It doesn't matter, you see.

Thirty-one or fifty-one is much the same for a woman who has made up her mind to live alone and work steadily for a definite object.
But you are still a young girl, Monica.

My best wishes!' Monica emboldened herself to ask what the object was for which her friend worked.
'How shall I put it ?' replied the other, smiling.