Her complexion, however, was purely English, and her character had all the coarseness of those who have lived for generations in the Fens, whence her father came, uncontrolled by higher influences, such as the fellowship of gentle-bred and educated folk.
Bess was an excellent and capable servant, one, moreover, who soon obtained a sort of mastery in the household.

On a certain occasion the young Squire, as they called him, was in one of the worst of his rages, having been forbidden by his mother to go to a coursing meeting which he wished to attend.

In this state he shut himself up in the library, swearing that he would do a mischief to anyone who came near him, a promise which, being very strong for his years, he was quite capable of keeping.

The man-servant was told to go in and bring him out, but hung back.
"Bless you," said Bess, "I ain't afraid," and without hesitation walked into the room and shut the door behind her.
Barbara, listening afar off, heard a shout of "Get out!" followed by a fearful crash, and trembled, for all violence was abominable to her nature.
"He will injure that poor girl," she said to herself, and rose, proposing to enter the library and face her son.
As she hurried down the long Elizabethan corridor, however, she heard another sound that came to her through an open window, that of Anthony laughing in his jolliest and most uproarious manner and of the housemaid Bess, laughing with him.

She stayed where she was and listened.