Me she seldom seemed to see--scarcely noticed when she saw me--almost never spake to me, and there were days and weeks, when I saw nobody in that silent house, and sat at meat alone--when, indeed, anyone remembered I was a hungry, growing child, and made provision for me.
"Schoolmates, at first, asked me to their homes.

I would not go because I could not ask them to my home in turn.

And so grew up to womanhood alone, and shy, and silent among my fellows; alone at home among the shadows of that old Dutch house; ever alone.

Always a haunted twilight seemed to veil the living world from me, save when I walked abroad along the river, thinking, thinking.
"Yet, in one sense I was not alone, Euan, for I was fanciful; and roamed accompanied by those bright visions that unawakened souls conjure for company; companioned by all creatures of the mind, from saint to devil.

Ai-me! For there were moments when I would have welcomed devils, so that they rid me of my solitude, at hell's own price!" She drew a long, light breath, smiled at me; then: "My foster mother died.