She had the manners of a cross, peevish woman; but her manners also were false, and gave no proper idea of her character.
But still, such as she was, she made life very serious to those who were called upon to dwell with her.
I need, I hope, hardly say that a young lady such as Miss Amedroz, even though she had reached the age of twenty-five,--for at the time to which I am now alluding she had nearly done so,--and was not young of her age, had formed for herself no plan of life in which her aunt's money figured as a motive power.

She had gone to Perivale when she was very young, because she had been told to do so, and had continued to go, partly from obedience, partly from habit, and partly from affection.

An aunt's dominion, when once well established in early years, cannot easily be thrown altogether aside,--even though a young lady have a will of her own.

Now Clara Amedroz had a strong will of her own, and did not at all,--at any rate in these latter days,--belong to that school of divinity in which her aunt shone almost as a professor.

And this circumstance, also, added to the seriousness of her life.